A couple of war films which haven't been mentioned, but which I firmly believe rest somewhere near the top of a fair list of War films are both, coincidentally, Russian. I'm talking about Sergei Bondarchuk's awesome
War and Peace (1968) and Elem Klimov's shattering Come and See (1985).
Aside from his flawed version of
Waterloo, the only movie of Bondarchuk's I've seen is
War and Peace, and it is a truly dazzling peace of cinema, with incredible technique which, no matter how spectacular, never fails to add to the emotional experience of the characters and the viewers and deepens its overall statement of the insanity of war. Some of the things which Bondarchuk comes up with, in his use of editing and long shots, borders on the mind-boggling. He can stage a 10-minute "montage" of battle footage (seemingly done in one take) which crams far more action and horror into it than the entirety of
The Two Towers.
Then, he will film a fancy dress ball, with hundreds of dancers and servants, and turn it into an emotional battlefield between the three main characters. As the camera swoops high above the dance floor, the viewer is swept up into the wonder of cinema while still feeling the passion and pain of those involved. Just when you think things can't get any more incredible, he shows you Napoleon's burning of Moscow in horrific detail. The film runs about eight hours, but it's a film you can watch over and over. Just make sure you find a widescreen version (the Russian one is the best) because although it's good in any presentation, it really cries out for perfect presentation because Bondarchuk certainly put a lot of thought and effort into how he made this movie. I'm hoping I can find some of his earlier films because rumor has it that they are also well worth watching.
Although
Come and See is equally spectacular cinematically, it approaches its subject in an inverse manner. While
War and Peace is the story of a vast war told from the perspective of mostly three characters, this newer film basically tells the story of a boy who is thrust into the unknown horror of war (World War II). His country, and more specifically, his village, needs him to help combat the Nazis. The central character, probably no more than 15, feels pride in being allowed to fight with what amounts to a Resistance movement, since there is really no organized military involved. Director Klimov is a master of sight and sound, and although the film is accessible to everyone, there are periods where it almost seems like an experimental film. After a particular loud nearby explosion, a hum stays on the soundtrack for maybe 20+ minutes because the characters are unable to actually hear each other. One thing about
Come and See is that even if you can sense the feeling that you should expect the worst, when it shows up, you are not prepared for how visceral and spontaneous it truly is. I don't really want to reveal anymore, but the boy, despite spending an idyllic couple of days with a girl he meets along the way, looks at the end like he's literally aged from 15 to about 30 in the span of weeks.
