Ivan's Childhood.
Tarkovsky, can you make a film that isn't brilliant and beautiful? I don't think you can, you ****er.
The political protest starts with the opening Mosfilms logo. Usually there is heroic music playing over statuettes of typical communist symbols, but the movie begins with a coo-cooing sound and Tarkovsky puts that over the symbols instead of the normal music.
From there, we see the horrors of war without seeing any real violence. We only see the enemies (the Germans, in a WWII setting) in one scene, where we see a few soldiers walking through water. How does Tarkovsky show us the horrors, then? Well, we see the environment, which is what he excels at because he loves long atmospheric shots and his cinematography is without equal. The biggest protest of war is a rather simple image, but very affective. I'd like to show it but some might consister it a spoiler.
The movie follows a kid named Ivan, who insists on being on the front line for the Soviet Army, for reasons you find out as you watch it. His story is told in fractured segments (images of beauty, then the brutality of war, for example).
The ending is crippling but not totally unexpected. I think that's the point, though.
__________________
Will post for food.
|