Customer Reviews

Destiny of a Man

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4 star:		(1)
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"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!

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".

Sergei Fyodorovich Bondarchuk's debut feature film, made in 1959, is still as powerful and moving as it was when it was first released in 1959. It seems to have been largely forgotten which is a shame. If you see this before his epic War and Peace you'll get a good taste of what is to come.