Coming from the United States, I have seen all the typical World War II movies; Saving Private Ryan, Schindlers List, etc. But one perspective I have always missed was the Russian viewpoint during WWII with the exception of Enemy at the Gates. With Come and See you are immersed into the struggle of Russia during WWII and it is one of the most jarring and thought provoking films you can see.
Come and See in a few words is about a boy named Flyora Gayshun (portrayed excellently by Aleksey Krachenko) who decides he wants to leave his village and go join the partisans in the fight against the Nazi Regime. It is never explicitly stated how old he is but if I had to take a guess maybe 13 or 14. After he is accepted into the partisans he is then left to guard the camp instead of being brought on the latest mission. He is upset by this because of course he thought he would help liberate Prussia from the Nazi 's and be a war hero. As he walks around crying for being left behind he runs into Glasha (Olga Mironova) who somewhat convinces him to return to camp. When they return they are ambushed enemy forces and then thrusts Flyora deeper and deeper into the horrors of war.
Now this movie is not like any other war movie I have seen. It has an extreme amount of grit to it. You become immersed into the violence and horror, even though for the first two acts there isn't very much violence. It isn't until the end of the film that you are really given a gut punch and are left speechless. There is still enough here to keep you transfixed. Florya's journey into madness and despair is amazing enough in its own right and Aleksey Krachenko really sells it. Supposedly during filming his hair even turned white because of the extreme lengths that director Elem Klimov went to while filming, including using live rounds for the guns.
The most interesting part of this movie is of course the third act. This is where the evils of war and the Nazi regime are really shown and where Flyora accepts that everything is not what he thought it would be. It starts off by the Nazi's taking control of a small Russia town that he is hiding in. All the villagers are then moved into barns where crowds of Nazi's stand outside, guns drawn. After the doors are closed and everyone is packed in like sardines, they take off a window and yell inside, "If you leave behind the children, then you will be free to go." Of course, none of the parents and townsfolk leave except for Flyora. He then has to sit and watch as they start to throw molotov cocktails and use flamethrowers at the barn and burn everyone inside. As Florya is surround by Nazi's and Kommandant's he just sits and watches, despair in his eyes. As the screams subside he tries to escape but is then picked up and has a gun pointed at his head for a photo op in one of the most iconic shots in this film. They let him go and he collapses to the ground.
The final scene of the film is where everything comes together and it all makes sense. The reason that the Nazi's wanted to keep the children in the barn was because it is always the children who make the come back against the forces keeping them in submission. The full explanation of this is done expertly as it shows Flyora shooting a poster of Hitler multiple times. Every time he takes a shot at it, it shows footage of World War II except in reverse; from holocaust footage to the blowing up of buildings. As more and more shots are fired by Flyora, it eventually finishes on a shot of Hitler and his mother in a family portrait when he was a child. Therefore proving the point that if Hitler was killed as a child then none of this would have happened and his upbringing (WWI) is what brought this upon everyone.
The theme and point of this film are so expertly displayed that I cannot stop thinking about this scene. This movie is telling more than just a boy experiencing war slammed with an anti-war theme. It is explaining how the travesty of wars can only bring to more destruction in the future because of the youth. I have no words to describe the feeling that I was left with when finishing this movie. It has powerful performances and an incredible powerful message. The last title card says "The Nazi's burned down 628 Byelorussian villages together with all the people in them." What a powerful message to send home at the end of this movie. But there is also another message somewhat hidden within the movies title. It is actually from a bible verse, from the Book of Revelation: "And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, 'Come and see.' And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts not the earth."
Grade: A+
Genre: War, Drama
Cast: Aleksey Kravchenko, Olga Mironova, Liubomiras Laucevicius
Rating: Not Rated
Director: Elem Klimov
