Andrew reviews one of the most harrowing war films ever made, Come and See.
"Yes, I know. I've lost a lot of weight since this god forsaken war started! Now, sign ze' papers!!! |
Come and See is a WWII film directed by Elem
Klimov, and it's his only feature film to date. It focuses on a young Russian
boy who enlists in the army to fight the Nazis and his horrific first-hand
experiences. More than any other film
made about the Second World War, Come and
See conveys the cumulative shell-shock impact war and genocide have on an
ordinary person.
It
follows protagonist Flyora through his gradual progression from an enlistee in
the Soviet Partisan forces to that of a battered and broken refugee. After
losing his hearing (and soon his sanity) to a nearby explosion on the
battlefield, he attempts to reunite with his family alongside a beautiful young
girl named Glasha. During his sojourn through war torn, Nazi occupied Russia,
he encounters and narrowly escapes a massacre of Russian civilians as bullets
fly about his head.
Come and See, which takes its name from the Book
of Revelation, is less about the logistics and historical bullet points of the
war and combat battles, than it is a portrayal of Hell on Earth. While reenacting several of the Nazi party's
worst atrocities and the terror of evading Nazi pursuit, Come and See also takes place largely within the mind of Flyora
and his gradually deteriorating psyche. After his deafening experience on the
battlefield, the film takes on a muffled ambiance of dread and unease as the
horrors around Flyora drive him closer and closer to utter madness.
Tom
Hank's shell-shock moments in Saving
Private Ryan very clearly had their inspiration here. Word has it that
director Klimov utilized hypnotizing techniques on the young actor playing
Flyora to create a realistic thousand yard gaze into the abyss. The film also
frequently makes use of surrealism to convey the war experience as sensory
overload. Not since Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalpyse
Now has war been seen as such a fantasia of fire, darkness, death and
insanity.
"I take your picture. It will last longer." |
By
placing the viewer within the shoes of Flyora, we're allowed to view war
through the naivete of a child's eyes, not fully comprehending the ghastly
horrors all around him. Even when Flyora happens upon a raped and bloodied
Glasha, it only passes by his eyes as one of many atrocities. Unlike other
treatments of the Holocaust such as Schindler's
List, with its heavy emotionalism and realistic approach to the material, Come and See tries to convey with cold,
distant precision what it must have felt like to experience it first hand; not
so much in what is seen, but in how the accumulation of unspeakable horrors
take their toll on the fragile human mind.
Working
to de-spectacle the war experience, you will most likely leave Come and See a changed person, unable to
look at the world the same way again. It doesn't aim to shock you as much as it
realistically creates a perspective of the war, and all the psychological
torment associated with it. When Klimov
was asked why he only made one feature film, it's unsurprising that he admitted
to feeling like “everything that was possible I felt I had already done”. In a sense, Come and See is kind of a
penultimate film, a once in a lifetime experience that will leave you as
altered as it does its hero.
-Andrew Kotwicki