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Editorial Reviews
Customer Reviews
Nothing could have prepared me for the experience. It is a singleminded, intensely focused, harrowing record of war, unlike anything I have ever seen. Elem Klimov gives us no moral context, makes no attempt to ground the viewer in any way (with the exception of a single scene near the end, after the cremation of the living villagers of Perekhody); instead his camera displays a frighteningly dispassionate willingness to simply show us. The title, I've read, may come from a verse in Revelations about the Beast; regardless, to "Come and See" is exactly what the film invites us to do -- simply to see reality. I think this is why the film is so engaging. I was forced to inhabit completely the eye of the camera, with nothing to protect me from what I was witnessing.
The most compelling "event" we're forced to witness is the evolution of the young protagonist's face, from that of a grinning, excited boy to a wizened, ageless yet ancient shell, scarcely a human face at all. (I've read a review which states that this film is about retaining one's humanity in the face of war. This is sanctimonious nonsense; it's about the obliteration of one's humanity.) Other incredible moments: the dreamlike scene in the forest, after the partisan camp is bombed, when Florian watches Glasha dance in a bright nimbus of falling rain...
I'm still recovering from this film... I may never recover. But I will watch it again, I know, because it's one of the most powerful viewing experiences I've ever had. Elem Klimov is a genius.
Just watch it!
The above passage from the Bible's Book of Revelations is the source of the title of Soviet director Elem Klimov's grim, powerful vision of war and death: "Come and See". The apocalyptic nature of the title is all too relevant as Klimov portrays the Wermacht (in conjunction with the S.S. and groups of collaborators) as the harbingers of the apocalypse who kill with sword and with hunger and with the beast of the earth. The audience serves as the witnesses called upon to behold the devastation.
Come and See takes place in occupied Belarus (loosely translated as "white Russia), a former Soviet Republic that shares a western border with Poland and a southern border with the Ukraine. Belarus was overrun shortly after the commencement of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941 and not liberated until July 3, 1944 the day Minsk was retaken by the Red Army. The film follows Florya (played remarkably well by thirteen-year old Alexei Kravchenko), a young teen eager to join the Partisans. The partisan movement was particularly successful in Belarus and their actions have been the stuff of legends and no small amount of pride since the war. At least 40,000 civilians joined the partisans, including hundreds of Jews who fled the holocaust in Poland to join the resistance movement in Belarus.
After digging up a rifle, the only requirement for enlistment, he is taken from his village and his crying mother and little sisters in his best Sunday suit to join with a band of partisans operating out of a wooded marshland near his village. Eager to fight, Florya is disappointed when he is left behind with Glasha, a cute young girl who pines for the Partisan's commander. They fall prey to a German attack and Florya finds himself partially deaf from the bombing. They make their way to his village where they find that Florya's family, along with the rest of the village, has been murdered in cold blood. Thus begins Florya's descent into a state close to madness. His journey from the village takes him on a tour of a countryside rendered devastated by the war. He is taken in by a farmer only to find that the village is about to be visited by the Germans. Florya is the only one with a sense that they are about to be exterminated and, sure enough, the soldiers with the willing help of local collaborators, the townsfolk are loaded into a large barn and killed. The scenes of the slaughter are horrifying both for the visual portrayal of grenades and flame throwers killing old men, women, and children and for the glee with which the executions are performed. Keep in mind that the horrors I just described are not shown to the viewer in any great detail. Rather, they are felt, and that feeling, that sense made a deeper visceral impression on me than scenes of blood and gore. Florya's descent continues until a harrowing closing scene.
There is nothing pretty about the violence, about the death and destruction that permeates Come and See. Nevertheless, it is clear that Klimov is not taking poetic license or exaggerating the horror of war visited upon the civilian population of Belarus. Belarus suffered three million casualties during the war and of the towns and villages destroyed during the fighting at least 450 of them were intentionally destroyed by the Germans, their inhabitants along with them, in retaliation for Partisan actions. Klimov's Come and See is as good a testament to the times the people of Belarus lived through as any monument of bronze or marble. This is a must-see film.
L. Fleisig
Although initially sceptical regarding this movie's historical accuracy as it was a Soviet era production, after watching it I thought this film to be a very honest and sobering portrayal of the war on the Eastern Front, between Hitler's Germany and the Soviet Union during WWII. The movie depicts an often overlooked facet of the war, specifically the activites of the SS "Einsatzgruppen," or special action police units, whose task was to liquidate Jews, communists, and any potential threats to the Nazi regime behind the front lines of the actual fighting. These SS police units travelled behind the army's advance, and in addition to conducting mass executions of Jews and suspected communists, were also employed to "pacify" occupied regions that were suspected of taking part in, or aiding, the growing underground resistance. The activites of such an SS unit provides the background to the movie as the main character, a young teenage boy, loses his parents and survives the razing of a Russian village - a scene quite unpleasant to watch, yet very well depicted and brutal in its realism. Of mention was the role played by local Russian militia in carrying out these executions and "reprisal" raids - as this is a Soviet film, and was subject to state oversight, I was surprised that such unpleasant reminders of Russian collaboration were incorporated. Large numbers of volunteers from the occupied territories were accomplices to the SS in their cleansing actions, a fact documented in this movie.
"Come and See" also provides an interesting glimpse into the role and activities of the Soviet partisans, the insurgent groups fighting the Nazi occupation behind the front. Furthermore, the suffering and harsh conditions endured by Russian civilians living under Nazi occupation is not lost upon the viewer. Although there are definitely stark Good vs. Evil undertones throughout the film (all Germans are essentially portrayed as cold, sadistic, Nazi killers - the Soviet partisans as heroic, beleaguered freedom-fighters), it must be remembered that this movie offers a mere snapshot of the war at its most horrifying level. SS actions such as the ones depicted were commonplace on the Eastern Front - as was the willing, and often enthusiastic participation of anti-Soviet / anti-Semitic elements in the USSR, whom the Nazis depended on for support.
Excellent camera work and photography, in my opinion the quality of filmmaking rivals the most recent Hollywood productions. This film is highly recommended to those interested in watching an accurate account of World War II in the eastern theater, and the war as experienced by the Soviet population.
