2022 Blind Spot Series: Come And See
What I knew going in: That it is apparently one of the most memorable war movies ever made.
Flyora (Aleksey Kravchenko) is a young Belarusian boy who finds a rifle buried in the sand and joins the Soviet resistance during WWII. He then comes face to face with the horrors of war.
Come and See is a film that comes up a lot on Film Twitter. Mostly it's brought up in the context of either "Great films I would never watch again" or "Show this to people so they can see what war is really like." Either way, despite knowing it was going to be brutal, it's one I've been meaning to see for a while, but I didn't put the greatest effort into it due to its content. My original Blind Spot for this month was meant to be Rebecca (1940) which disappeared from streaming. Then this fell into my lap.
I did not expect this film to be shot the way it was. The best way I can describe it as avant garde. I was expecting this to be a more straight forward story, so I didn't expect these pivots to more experimental scenes. I do think some are affective, particularly when a character is talking straight into the camera. It makes you feel like they are personally confronting you with the horrors you're about to witness. Other times, like Flyora and Glasha dancing in the rain feel sort of distracting and not just a moment of levity.
It's as brutal as I expected it to be. I've seen so many photos of Kravchenko's terrified face that I recognized a lot of the scenes as they were happening. There's a lot of overacting in this movie, but most of it is not from him. He's very good, and I can tell how he ended up traumatized from making this film.
I was never going to like this movie, but I was hoping to be able to see it as the masterpiece everyone talks about and I find myself in the middle. Yes, it's an effective anti-war piece, it's vivid when you'd expect it to be muted. But it's also over long and deeply awkward at times. I don't know if I'd recommend this to anyone.
Grade: C+
This is one of those anti-war films that you can't un-watch after you see it the first time. It is a terrifying film and certainly one I wouldn't forget. Sorry it didn't work for you.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Barbie>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Oppenheimer. Yeah, my fat ass is going to see Greta Gerwig's insane film. That trailer is FUCKING GENIUS!
I doubt I'll forget it either, so it was effective at least. I loved that Barbie teaser! So fucking good. I'll be seeing both of those movies opening day. Preferably back to back
DeleteSounds more like a box check for you than a rewarding view.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of those films that I KNOW I should see but being aware of its reputation as gut-wrenching and harrowing I have an extremely hard time convincing myself to sit down and consciously put myself through the experience. Apocalypse Now is another that falls into that category aided even more by the fact that my sister told me she had to walk out of the theatre when she went to see it because of its intensity. That doesn't make me think "Bring it on!"
Within the realm of your Blind Spots and since you haven't posted your list yet I want to remind you about the 1959 version of "Imitation of Life" that I used last year for Dell's Girls Week. You mentioned you hadn't seen it and I think you'll love it. It is usually streaming somewhere, plus they show it on TCM from time to time.
I have my list posting this week! I'll add that to it. Since I stopped getting DVDs from Netflix, I'm sure I'll have to make a lot of adjustments this year based on what's available to stream or rent from the library.
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