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Come and See Movie Review

Come and See (Idi i smotri) is a 1985 Belarusian anti-war film directed by Elem Klimov and starring Aleksei Kravchenko. It’s a very good, but somewhat overhyped movie.

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“To love… to have children…“

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The invasion of a village in Byelorussia by German forces sends young Florya into the forest to join the weary Resistance fighters, against his family’s wishes. There he meets a girl, Glasha, who accompanies him back to his village. On returning home, Florya finds his family and fellow peasants massacred. His continued survival amidst the brutal debris of war becomes increasingly nightmarish, a battle between despair and hope.

Much has been said about the importance and brutality of this classic Soviet movie. When talking about the former, I wholeheartedly agree. There have been so many movies about the Western Front as of course the Western media favors their own stories, but clearly historically speaking the Eastern Front was not just more important, but also more brutal and more tragic. Here, we get to see all of that, thus the importance of this picture should not be underestimated.

As for that famous brutality, the film is mostly successful at making you feel utter despair and hopelessness, which is certainly something the poor victims of WWII must have felt themselves. Showcasing how horrendous it could get for those who continually stayed alive made for a truly harrowing watch.

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But, I personally found the film too dark and depressing with not enough light moments to counteract all of the darkness in it. To me the pain and many atrocious tragedies and things that happened to the protagonist were overwhelming, overly manipulative and at times not as plausible. The movie felt repetitive in its tone and plot points with not enough variety to it. The thematic complexity is also non-existent as the director just showcases all of the horror of war without ever commenting upon it at any capacity. I just wanted a more sophisticated script.

Where Come and See truly shines is in a couple of truly unforgettable sequences. The bog scene with the horse is particularly effective at conveying the terrors of war while the ending has to be the film’s most striking part. The main character finds the portrait of Adolf Hitler and starts shooting it. As he does so, we get to witness Hitler’s history but in reverse. Eventually, we arrive at the baby Hitler moment and the boy starts crying at that site. It is a powerful, moving moment that definitely felt overly disparate from the rest of the film, but it was undeniably memorable.

Come and See does try to incorporate some poetic moments here and there, but for the most part it favors extreme realism and I personally wanted more of those cinematic, different sequences in terms of tone and style.

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That is not to say that technically it isn’t amazing because it clearly is. The direction from Elem Klimov is outstanding and incredibly confident and the acting from Aleksey Kravchenko is incredible. They surely made this kid feel terrible while making the movie, but it was all worth it in the end as his performance is superb. Others are much less memorable, but the portrayal of Nazis as pure evil worked for me as it was grounded in reality. The cinematography, score and imagery are all excellent.