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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Visceral POW camp portrayal and an able representation of Russian soldiers in WW2., July 25, 2006
"Communists, commissars, officers and Jews, take two steps foward." So orders a Nazi officer to the array of Soviet prisoners in front of him. The Great Patriotic War (as the Russians call it) begins 14 minutes into this Russian-made film. 6 minutes later has Andrei Sokolov (played by Sergei Bondarchuk, who also directs) a POW. Which brings us to the church utilized to corral these Soviet soldiers and thence to the roll-call of sorts referred to above. The man with the spectacles is asked whether he's a Jew. He answers that he's a doctor. This is the doctor who the day before had jarred Andrei's dislocated arm back into its socket. Andrei then looks on, as well as an officer not acknowledging his rank, as the doctor is pulled out of the line and shot. The soldier who had threatened the previous evening to point this officer out to the Germans as soon as the opportunity allowed didn't make the night, however; Andrei having suffocated him. Most of the rest of the film concerns the 2 years that Andrei was kicked around as a prisoner. The details of this ordeal is related to us through Andrei himself, through his eyes and words. The entire film is told in this manner, as Andrei's story is told to us. Andrei catches the ear of a fellow-veteran who he chances upon on a muddy riverfront, after the war, while waiting for a ferry. They have a smoke with each other and begin to talk. "Smoking alone," Andrei remarks "is about as bad as dying alone." Thus we learn how the Germans wrecked Andrei's life (the message of this film), as Andrei relates his story to us, as we, the viewers, take the place of his smoking interlocutor. So we are taken to the POW camp where Andrei is eventually confined and to what follows. The POW camp, unusually (for most WW2 films), is most realistically portrayed. The film really conveys the hopelessness of the prisoners, as well as capturing the horror of a Nazi work camp. To boot, this disc offers a short special bonus feature on "German Camps." We also get a 5 minute look at Mikhail Sholokhov, the author of the story on which this film was based. And a ten minute look at the director, as well as 10 minutes of Red Square parade footage (one feature with no sight of Stalin and the other with him featured prominently). PS: This Russian film is available with ENGLISH DUBBING, but I'd recommend watching this (rather well-made and worthy) film in its original Russian; utilizing the English subtitles instead, as the Russian just adds to the film's authenticity. (06Jul) Cheers!
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14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best moovies about war, March 17, 2003
This is definitly the moovie worth seeing. Made in 1959, this film didn't aged at all, recommended for any age, any nationality, very powerful film , director and leading actor Bondarchuk, creator of masterpiece "War and peace".
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful, June 21, 2006
I found this to be a beautiful film. I was gripped immediately when the man began his story as the boy played along the riverbank.
This film was simply an emotional roller coaster. Putting aside any propaganda charges film viewers will lay on this film, it was a human endurance story and a champion of overcoming adversity. The viewer is treated to love - a joyful, pure love, and confronted with a horrible wickedness. The hero suffers, and suffers more, and nearly loses all hope. The most gripping scene was terribly tense as our hero stands ready to meet his death in the face of his most tormenting captors. He throws all caution to the wind, fully expecting death at any moment, and resigning himself to his fate he challenges his captors in an all out reckless dialog that had me dreaming of the scene later that night. Powerful stuff, and suspenseful.
The end is a wonderfully gentle time, and two common sufferers of mankind's evils come together as common brethren bound by experience, to love one another as father to son. Its a great story, if common, but well executed.
There are some fabulous scenes, visually speaking, and the compositions are crafted with much care. The scenes in the gulag are particularly cold and ominous, the use of spotlights and contrast really chills. Characters seem chosen for physical appropriateness as well, especially concerning the Germans. The film's German soldiers are calculated stereotypes of the generic evil nazi as a Soviet Russian might be "encouraged" to view him. The Nazi type takes joy in cruel assaults and coldly and openly casts fierce insults for humor's sake at the Russians. While certainly and obviously stereotypical, this characature actually adds to the story, though it might annoy closet Nazi apologists (and who doesn't enjoy annoying a Nazi?)
Superb film, a great story of determined will.
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