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| Come and See | 
 enlarge | Director: Elem Klimov
Actors: Aleksei Kravchenko, Olga Mironova, Liubomiras Lauciavicius, Vladas Bagdonas, Jueri Lumiste
Studio: Kino Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $17.99
You Save: $11.96 (40%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $17.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  (107 reviews)
Sales Rank: 7739
Format: Color, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Ntsc
Languages: German (Original Language), Russian (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 140 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 3172
UPC: 738329031725
EAN: 0738329031725
ASIN: B0000BWVCR
Release Date: September 2, 2003
Theatrical Release Date: 1985
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 102 more reviews...
 Soviet Cold War Propaganda December 16, 2008
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
Why would anyone in their right mind believe the events portrayed in a movie, especially one produced in a Communist country. The films made in Hollywood don't portray the truth or the facts but Hollywood has two motives in doing so: the liberal ideology that is fostered on the uneducated in order to elect liberal politicians and especially Barack Hussein Obama; second, to make money.
I viewed the propaganda film made in Belorus, a Communist country, and I believe the significance of the movie is not the events it purports to exhibit, but the message it is trying to send to the gullible in the Iron Curtain countries. The movie was produced during the Communist era. When will Moscow show a film of the Katyn massacre where they no doubt will show the SS and Gestapo murdering 15,000 Polish officers.
There were many war crimes committed by both sides but the anti-partisan actions in the occupied USSR were assisted to a large degree by Ukrainians, Latvians, Poles, Lithuanians, Estonians, Russians, etc. who all had burned into their memories the atrocities committed by the Communists against them prior to 22 June 1941. Tens of millions were murdered under the Lenin and Stalin regimes.
One scene which certainly is contrary to reality is at the end of the movie where the Germans and their allies are prisoners and are machine-gunned to death. The reality is that anyone captured by the partisans were horribly tortured and left to die. This was the standard tactic of the partisans and had been ordered as such by Stalin immediately after 22 June 1941. We have seen such tactics used by all Communist terrortists, whether in Yugoslavia, Chine, Korea or Viet-Nam.
The claim that the Germans herded the population of a town or village into a building and then proceeded to set fire to that structure originated with the French Communist Maquis claim that the Das Reich Second SS-Panzer Division killed the people of Oradour-sur-Glane by such a method. The Communists of Belarus have improved upon these preposterous claims by stating in the propaganda movie that over 600 such villages in that country suffered the same fate. Why did not the criminals of the Soviet regime bring this up at the Nuremberg trials where they also tried to blame the Germans for the assassinations of 15,000 Polish officers at Katyn.
The French government attempted to bring to trial members of the Das Reich Division but eventually no one was ever prosecuted and convicted but the investigations revealed that the Maquis set in motion the events which culminated in the tragedy of Oradour. If the government of Belarus has any verifiable evidence that the Germans forced civilians into a building to burn them to death, let them do so now.
 A Haunting, Epic, Terrifying Masterwork. November 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Elem Klimov's "Come And See" is one of the great war films, it is great because it does not depend purely on action scenes, cardboard character heroes or pounding music. This is a film with a soul, it is a haunting, timeless vision that takes place during a specific moment in history but can be applied anywhere.
It is typical in America to glorify our role in WWII and the downfall of Hitler, but it is easy to forget that the Soviet Union took the brunt of Hitler's assault during the massive, insane Operation Barbarossa. "Come And See" takes us on the ground with the civilians, villagers, resistance militias and soldiers who experienced the fury of Hitler's fascist troops. Some ignorant reviewers here condemn the film as "Communist propaganda." Why? Because it is Communists being assaulted and defending themselves? Should the Nazis be given a better deal here? This is a powerful work of art that documents a historical event, a historical truth. Klimov uses this moment in history to create a broader, poetic piece that has actual human characters, not falsely heroic personas out of "Saving Private Ryan" who sound as if they are reciting lines from the latest Go Army commercial.
Klimov focuses primarily on two young Belarussians, Florya (Aleksei Kravchenko) and Glasha (Olga Mironova) who are caught in the middle of the Nazi onslaught on the USSR. Florya, a young boy is recruited into the local militia and meets Florya. There might be a hint of a blossoming love, but soon the German troops begind landing from the sky and the dogs of war are unleashed. What is so brilliant about Klimove's approach is that he does not make a conventional action movie, instead he let's the characters speak, share ideas, express hopes, desires and fears. We don't get the sense that war is heroic or fun, it is a dark, terrifying experience where the worst in human nature is unleashed. The cinematography is beautiful, gritty and hypnotic. Pay close attention to the sound editing as well, it is a masterful example of creating atmosphere, tension and emotion.
The second half of the film will be hard for many to take, especially the scenes of a Nazi rampage through a village. Anyone who has read Antony Beevor's brilliant book "Stalingrad" should be well-versed in Nazi tactics used on villages as they dug deeper into the USSR, but Klimov never shies away from the horrific reality, the brutality and terror. He presents images and sequences that stay in the memory, that provoke outrage and sadness. And yet Klimov does keep alive a sense of hope and strength as we see the local communities unite to resist the occupation of their country. Americans should force themselves to consider our own times, as our own country is occupying foreign lands, leaving destruction behind as rag-tag armies try to mobilize.
Watching "Come And See," you realize how American films have whitewashed war and violence to the point where audiences seeing a "war film" really just want to see carnage decorated with nationalism, consider the reviewers here who consider the film "boring" because Klimov actually makes an attempt to create characters, to capture faces and people living through tremendously agonizing moments. Just look at the faces, the close-ups, they have a haunting quality few films ever achieve. "Come And See" is violent, it is brutal, it is poetic and a masterpiece. If you care for a REAL exploration of war and it's effects, if you really want to see a work that transcends the typical genre of the "war movie," this is a must-see.
 Interesting viewpoint November 8, 2008
This is an interesting film about a subject of which I have very little knowledge. The story is told through the eyes of a 13 year old boy pressed into the service of partisan rebels during German occupied Belarus during WW2. THe actor who plays the boy does very well, particularly considering he had never previously acted. The story is sad, depressing, but utterly realistic. War sucks, and this film gives ample reason why that is true. Horrid scenes of German deprivation close the movie as they plunder a village and bring horror to its inhabitants.
Come and See comes with subtitles, though the copy I watched was over-dubbed in English. The subtitles and the over-dubbed English often didn't match, but it wasn't a big deal. I've seen where this film is touted as the greatest war movie ever made. I wouldn't go that far, but it is very good, very brutal, and quite realistic. I highly recommend it to those who enjoy war films. While it is often very violent, there is no real in your face violence, most of it is implied.
Nightmare come true October 21, 2008
I bought a copy of "Come and See'', sight unseen, largely based on the many favorable reviews on this site. I am an avid reader of military history of all ages, and have a growing collection of DVDs on the subject of war- including documentaries, history-based dramas, and one other category, to which "Come and See" perhaps best belongs: apocalyptic, or perhaps, cautionary.
Art, including movie-making, might have several purposes: to entertain, to inform, and sometimes simply to just express the artists' vision.....I did not view "Come and See" with any pre-conceived idea of what to expect; indeed, I had no idea other than a bare-bones understanding that the subject was an historical event: the Belarus massacres of WWII. My historical background for that was rather limited- largely from Martin Gilbert's exhaustive Holocaust history, which detailed many of the lesser-known, small village massacres throughout Poland and Western Russia, before the advent of the mass extermination camps.
This movie, to me, made no sense- and particularly because of that, it succeeds in it's likely intent. This is not entertainment, to be sure, and not merely a documentary (though many real-life images of the times are shown at the end of the film).....I'd best call it a successful attempt to create a nightmare on film. A real event, but so unimaginable in it's details that, to portray it to a comfortable modern audience, years after the fact, and likely mostly strangers to any such similar events, must necessarily turn out to be strange, disjointed, at times drearily slow, and then at once horrifyingly brief. In short, all the elements of a nightmare come true.
The cinematography is excellent, both in capturing the dreariness of the Russian landscape and also the lush, forboding darkness of the Russian forests, where much of the action takes place.
The sound is unique, but in a way that many may find simply annoying, if not otherwise drawn into the nightmare that is unfolding. A shell burst renders the young Russian protagonist partially deaf early on in the film, and much of the rest of the movie is heard through his muffled, ringing ears. The relentless nature of this bizarre effect adds a great deal to the uneasiness one feels throughout this film: some will likely just find it annoying, but I rather imagine it was at least that, for the protagonist. There are long stretches in the movie where there is no dialogue at all, just this everpresent background noise. It bothered me a lot, actually- which was only a problem for me till I figured out that it was intended to do just that.
The actors will all be unknown to the American viewer, of course, and will also be disappointing for the viewer expecting dramatic speeches at well-timed interludes, that all make perfect sense in the context of a neat, orderly chain of events. But again, this is a nightmare, and the dialogue is therefore episodic, often non-sensical, and most of the acting is done without words: the close-up shots of the character's faces throughout this film are riveting, and convey personal (and universal) anguish better than any well-written speech might have done. Think about voices that flit in and out of any nightmare you have had, and you'll see what I mean: non-sensical, random, altogether disturbing.....except that in a nightmare you trust that you'll eventually wake, and it will all be over. But in "Come and See", the nightmare went on and on.....
I'm writing this review after viewing the movie for the first time, which arguably is not the best measure of any film. I suspect that with repeated viewings, I will find things that still just annoy me, but also expect that there will be more that I will appreciate as well. I think it's a bit simplistic to give this movie a one-star rating, just as it is a bit much to give it 5 stars.
Maybe you just need to be "in the mood" to appreciate this film, but for those who can stand it, it's worth viewing at least once.
"I am the man who looked for peace and found
My own eyes barbed.
I am the man who groped for words and found
An arrow in my hand.
I am the builder whose firm walls surround
A slipping land.
When I grow sick or mad
Mock me not nor chain me:
When I reach for the wind
Cast me not down:
Though my face is a burnt book
And a wasted town. "
Sidney Keyes
what can happen October 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I wouldn't recommend this film to overly sensitive people. It is a grimly realistic portrayal of what can happen, and history tells us has happened, when people are given license and encouragement to indulge their most cruel, brutish impulses. The director has,to my mind, succeeded brilliantly in showing the murderous orgy which resulted when the constraints of culture and civilization were removed. Rather than entertainment, watching this film is an experience, reminiscent of the nightmare visions of Bosch and Brueghel. As a counterpoint to the barbarity we are shown the determination of the invaded people not to be trodden underfoot. Come and See is surely a tribute to the strength of the human will to survive even under these monstrous circumstances.
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