Movies - Come and See

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	Movies - Come and See

Come and See (Иди и смотри transliterated "Idi i smotri") is a 1985 Belarusian film, directed by Elem Klimov and starring Alexei Kravchenko, Olga Mironova. The film is set in various villages in Belarus during the Nazi occupation in the 1944.

This film has not been rated by the MPAA. As it has violence, blood and suggestions of sex, it has been rated K-16 in Finland (and similar ratings in Iceland, Argentina and Germany), and acceptable for 15-year-olds and older in England and Sweden. There would be no nudity if it weren't for a brief view of a Nazi woman's breasts, and for this alone the MPAA would've probably rated this movie R. Just for the violence it might've gotten a PG-13.

Plot summary

Two young boys dig around a sand field looking for rifles.

One of the boys, Florya, finds a rifle, and the next day resistance fighters show up at his house, taking Florya with them. The militia prepares to confront the Nazis, but at the last minute the commander decides Florya will stay behind in the resistance fighters' camp. The young boy is very sad. He comes across Glasha, a girl who is also staying behind. The Germans show up and bombard the camp.

Florya loses his hearing and returns to the village, certain that his family hid in an out-of-the-way island. It takes a while before he realizes they were all killed by the Nazis. He meets up with three of the resistance fighters and they engage the Germans in a skirmish, but one by one they die until Florya is once again left by himself.

An old man from a neighboring village takes Florya and gives him the identity of one of his grandchildren. The Germans are already in the village and herd the people into a building, which they then set ablaze. Florya escapes, is captured and photographed with some Nazi officers, one of whom holds a gun to his head but doesn't shoot him.

After Florya recovers his rifle, he meets up again with the resistance fighters, who have somehow managed to capture the Nazis. Florya douses the Nazis with gasoline, then the others shoot at them. A man holding a torch decides not to use it and extinguishes it in the water.

Florya starts shooting at a portrait of Adolf Hitler. This is interleaved with a montage that goes backwards through time: We see corpses at a concentration camp, Hitler congratulating a young German boy, some Nazi party congresses of the 30s, stills from Hitler's service in World War I, stills of Hitler in school, ending with a picture of Hitler as a baby on his mother's lap. After this is shown, Florya stops shooting.

Production

A lot of the footage was shot with Steadicam.

Music

The original soundtrack is rhythmically amorphous music composed by Oleg Yanchenko. At a few key points in the film existing music is used, sometimes mixed in with Yanchenko's music (such as Johann Strauss Jr.'s Blue Danube). At the end, during the montage, music by Richard Wagner is used, most notably the Ride from Die Walküre. The conclusion of the film uses the Lachrymosa from Mozart's Requiem.

Awards

For this movie Klimov won the FIPRESCI prize and the Golden Prize at the Moscow International Film Festival.

Criticism

Walter Goodman, writing for the New York Times, dismissed the ending as "a does of instant inspirationalism," but concedes to Klimov's "unquestionable talent."

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