Come and See

In March 2009, I watched Elem Klimov's Come and See (1985) for the first time. I was stunned by its unflinching and intense depiction of war. Almost a year afterwards, I decided to watch the film again to see if it really was as great as I thought back then. Klimov's film tells about an innocent Russian boy who has to deal with terrible atrocities as Nazis wreak havoc near his hometown.

The screenplay is more or less a mess, no matter how I look at it. Its anti-war message is presented in an over-the-top, heavy-handed way - and never goes below the superficial level. The film alienates the viewer on many occasions (the film is all about being ridiculously dark - there is even no comparison to a better time to make the characters closer to the audience), which is only terrible because it relies heavily on the viewer's reaction. That way the film resorts to using only shock value as a means of exploring the themes. That's a sign of weak writing. However, the movie does portray war in extremely gruesome detail - something it does somewhat well. Sadly, that hardly makes the content satisfying.

The film's form is even more alienating: complex long takes, ridiculously melodramatic musical score, baffling sound mixing and the calm pace keep the viewer at bay. As a distant, cold observation on war the film utterly fails. Despite that, I can still applaud its ways to alienate the viewer - especially the noisy sound mixing is good at that. However, your ears will hurt by the end of the film because all the sound effects are used in really peculiar ways. You'll have to hear it for yourself.

Shamefully, the film is too enraged about its subject so that the movie is not capable of providing a sensible and complex take on anything.

Score: 5 out of 10