Come and See - 1985
For me, this viewing completed a sort of triumvirate. It concluded a three day descent into the horrors at the heart of humankind's duality. Three war pictures stretching across the middle of the 1980's, involving several different conflicts in the world's theater. To be honest, at this point, I'm a little drained and world-weary. Even so, I'm disappointed in myself. The "pen" seemed to flow pretty freely in the wake of Full Metal Jacket and Platoon. Here, words seem to be failing me.
Why is this so devastating, one might ask. Well, I in no way want to convey that my lack of eloquence is due to this being an inferior picture to those just cited. In fact, in many ways it's superior to not only Stone and Kubrick's work, but just about any other anti-war film I've ever seen. And I suppose, if I'm going to try and curry any favor for Come and See with others, this seems like the logical starting place. Quite simply, this is about as good as it gets.
The devil is really in the details. When I realized that this was director's Elem Klimov's final film, things clicked into place for me. So much of the greatness of this masterwork is compositional. It is the mesmeric sound design, which digs into a whole bag of tricks. There is muting in places, but this is cut through with cacophonous noises of people screaming, bullets cutting through air, the sounds of nature and so much more.
The camera matches the sound precision at every turn. There are so many close ups of characters' faces rendered in detail but also lingering for far more seconds than is natural. The effect is to discomfit the viewer. When one close up led to another, I could not help but feel a rising sense of Andrei Tarkovsky's influence. But then again, the picture does not play like a standard war film. It's almost like our protagonist is a sojourner just sort of wandering from village to village, battle to skirmish, and back again. This felt like Bergman's Seventh Seal as much as anything else.
Besides these things, the cinematography itself is just remarkable. It's far grittier and grainier than a Malick picture, but the cuts to trees, forests, and wildlife are reminiscent of some of his work. The performances are all naturalistic and stripped bare. Of course, the quintessential example of exquisite framing is the way we witness, through subtle makeup touches in a character finding rising horror every step he takes, a boy who is almost literally aging decades before our eyes.
But, in the end, Come and See would not nearly STICK like it does without incredible scenes. One of them, involving a Belarussian village, a certain barn, and a derelict pack of wolves in German uniforms will remain etched in my brain forever. Ditto a tremendous monologue delivered right in camera (it has the effect of almost breaking the 4th wall) by the young lady named Glasha. Then there is a journey of grief through a lifeless bog, a night scene involving zinging bullets and a prized cow, and a final sequence which has stood the test of time.
This is a film that NEEDS to be seen by everyone. It is, in my estimation, about as pure and everclear as the anti-war picture can be. This is because it harrows the mind, rather than entertaining it. As such, it defeats that old adage that no solid battle film can ever REALLY be anti-war because it must entertain its audience even as it tries to drive home its message (I believe it’s a Truffaut quote, for those inquiring minds). Come and See beats the genre at its own game, for its depiction is never less than hauntingly soul-shaking and agonizing, but it manages to "thrill" and wow us in the sheer brilliance of its composition.
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