Come and See (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]

Well done, very realistic movie about Nazi occupation of Belarus! Hard to believe human beings could treat fellow human beings with such wanton cruelty! Somewhat depressing & hard to watch but quite educational!

As far as a war film, this one has no peer. Come And See is like a grim documentary of war, but a movie that is completely different from any other war movie. There were no grandiose battles, planning in war-rooms, or storming the beaches. There is no Tom Hanks, Ben Affleck or Tom Sizemore leading American troops into battle against the evil foe. The war is seen almost entirely through the terrified and shell-shocked eyes of a young boy. We see no tanks or armaments, or even German soldiers, until the final horror show where a village is decimated. Early in the film we see a lone eerie recon plane, that foreshadows the horror to come. The payload scene near the end is surreal, with the Germans looking almost cartoonish in their drunken depravity, with loud music blaring, dogs barking, a nightmare tunnel that has no end. Mercifully, for the paralyzed and repeatedly gut-punched audience, the film did eventually end with a spellbinding montage tied to the movie’s unforgettable final scene.

Unrelentingly bleak, haunting, and challenging anti-war film, but the realistic performances and visceral depiction of the atrocities of war will stay with you long after the film is over. Incredibly powerful visuals and the loss of innocence portrayed here help make this a film everyone should see once.

Much of this movie is a fairly standard war story: very young boy wants to fight the Nazis. Joins partisans, has some adventures. About 2/3 in, the movie takes a sudden and dramatic and powerful turn. You read about villages being destroyed, people being pitilessly murdered. Here it is. Hard to watch but it should be seen. The title says it all: Come and see

Despite the subtitles and the somewhat gruesome nature of the events represented in the film, it presents a solid performance of a sorry state of affairs which all too truthfully replicates much of human cruelty in warfare, perhaps not even to the full extent often seen today in some present cases of warfare.

Some viewers might find some scenes in the movie disturbing. Nazi Germany invaded Belarus in 1943 and did unspeakable things to the Belarussians. Movie centers on teenage boy Flyora Gayshun and teenage girl Glasha as they become trapped in the Holocaust. Aleksey Kravchenko was 15 years old when he portrayed teenage Flyora Gayshun in "Come And See". By the end of the movie, his character looked like he was 40 years old. Horrors of war will do that. Olga Mironova was also a teenager when she portrayed Glasha in "Come And See". It was her Only movie. Aleksey and Olga were brave to participate in this realistic War and Holocaust movie. The scene where they had to Cross a Bog must have been frightening for them. Another scene had Trees being Shredded by Live Bullets, while they took cover. Criterion Collection has a Second Disc of Extras. Director mentioned how they had to Protect the Teenage Actors from "Going Insane" because of the Realistic Portrayal of the War and the Holocaust. Dictators, presidents, rulers, politicians, should all be sent to the front lines in the wars/conflicts that they send their soldiers to.

Perhaps it's number one. It beats stuff like Private Ryan and Apocalypse Now without effort, and stands above Tin Drum and Das Boot. It's overwhelming. It will swallow you whole. It's hypnotic but it's horrifyingly real. I'll just say that if you enjoy war movies, this is a necessary watch. You're cheating yourself if you ignore it.

Considering how hyped this film is - listed frequently as one of the ten best war films ever made, I have to say that I was a little disappointed. I didn't particularly care for the screenplay and I thought a lot of the acting and directing were a little over-the-top. The film was nowhere near the level of Fires on the Plain (Japanese, 1957?) or the film 1944 (Estonian, 2010?), the film about the first Finnish war with the Russians in WW2, or the Korean War film about the two brothers (Korean film, 2010?). I am embarrassed that I don't know the names of these films. I am also embarrassed that I am listed as "Unhappy Customer". I guess I must have been unhappy about one of my Amazon purchases back when Cro-Magnons still roamed the earth. The part of Come and See that is very impressive is the destruction of an entire village, with all of the men, women and children killed by an SS unit that specifically did only that, and they were very good at it. I think they mentioned at the end of the film that the Germans destroyed something like 2,500 villages, in Belarus alone!

I first saw this movie on SBS (in Australia) in the early 1990s and it has stayed with me. It is "a difficult watch", as they say, and if you are of a delicate nature then it might be best to think twice about watching it, because once seen, it is not easily forgotten. Made in 1985, it's not a particularly "gory" film, in the sense of blood and guts (as something like "Saving Private Ryan" is), but the brutality of war has almost never been so realistically depicted. The Nazi "Einsatzgruppen" (or "death squads") were utterly merciless and cruel, carving their way through several countries and giving no quarter to anyone they met. This film takes place in what is now called Belarus and follows a young Russian boy named Flyora, who joins the Soviet resistance against the Nazi invasion. He is then immersed in a living nightmare of unbelievable carnage as he tries to make his way to somewhere safe, but there is seemingly nowhere to be found. The acting is incredible, particularly by Alexsei Kravchenko (Flyora) and Olga Mironova (Glasha), and as usual, the Criterion edition is brilliant. If you can take the disturbing nature of the subject matter, then this film is an absolute must-see.

erg mooie film

Excellent film

The film was a true art form in portending the painful emotion of being persecuted and oppressed. I commend the director for his attention to detail a symbolic nuances.

A film which needs no introduction. If you have heard of or are aware of this film you know that it is deeply haunting and unsettling. A truely wonderful peice of cinema which stands the test of time. Do not expect to be uplifted by this film or even come away from it happy. Its stark portrayal of war is as mesmerising as it is abhorrent. A film not to be missed but maybe skip it for a date night.