Come and See (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Exceptional Cinematic Masterpiece! Brutal in its depiction of the realities of war. Witness a young man's coming-of-age story, losing his youth and innocence and reduced to the 1000-yard stare. Powerful!

Wow.. if you wanna get a small glimpse at what war is like.. watch this film, truly a masterpiece and left me in pieces too..

Few artists are Masters like Shakespeare, most everything they make becomes a classic, but also few are like Miguel de Cervantes, a creator of a single piece of art that is on par with Masters like Shakespeare, sure, it's only one, but one is enough for eternity, and forever is a long time. The Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky may be the Shakespeare of Soviet cinema, but Klimov is their Cervantes, and their ain't nothing to be ashamed of in that.Come And See is a thing of beauty, a thing of terror, a thing unique. The film stands as an unnerving nightmare of human cruelty at its apex, a sad and angering film, a movie that makes the slogan "never again" have weight and meaning. Many films on the holocaust or second world war fail to hurt the viewer in the way they should, battering you like a violent blow, Come And See does not do this, Klimov takes his time, he slowly builds and builds his horror show, in many ways the film uses horror film tropes, but not in the same way. Klimov mounts a dread that continues for such a long period of time that, even when you think the tension is being relieved, or should be relieved, you find it stays, it stays and stays and stays, until finally, in the last twenty or so minutes, it releases, not in some explosive finale, but in a draw out expulsion of bile and viciousness; the very release of tension itself is an unpleasant process, it gnaws and claws at the viewer, makes you beg it to cease, and when it finally does, all that's left, is an empty sorrow. Klimov, in the making of this film, seems, like some sort of dark magician, slowly performing a ritual, whose end goal is, for just a second, to peel back the curtain of time, and though he cannot show you what happened, he can, at the very least, let you hear Hitler's victims screams; and damn does he not get close enough.Upon seeing this film, any artist will envy its craft, as any person will feel repelled from its cruelty. It is an uncompromising vision, bold in its artistry, and hard to watch; all at the same time. Though it may have been Klimov's final film, their is no shame in going out on such a high note, hell, I don't even blame him; if I'd been as lucky as he, to make such a magnum opus, how could I resist. It is, as it's title suggests, a film to be seen.

Love it, great movie without the American Hollywood propaganda. The boy acting was amazing, everyone acting was surreal!!

One of this movies greatest strengths is also it's greatest weakness: it's incredibly surreal.The opening scene is a good indication of what the first two thirds of the movie are like--odd, sort of inhuman characters interacting with each other, and moving the plot forward very, very slowly. It reminds me of the movies that Yorgos Lanthimos would go on to make, where the character are intentionally stiff and strange.This becomes a strength as the movie goes on, because it creates a unique perspective on the action. It's all dream-like, maybe as it would be if you were in a state of shock, like the characters are. The chaos and bloodshed that ensues eventually twists the surreal quality of the movie into something nightmarish, horrific.However, the surrealness of the film is ultimately a weakness, because nothing feels relatable. You never truly care about the characters, because they don't seem like real people. In the third act, we see some absolutely brutal scenes of war... these scenes would be disturbing no matter the context, but their impact falls short of what it could be because the movie doesn't have enough grounding in reality.It's also clear in the end that the director wanted to make a statement about the true horrors of war, because we're shown real photos and videos of some of the atrocities carried out by The Third Reich. This makes me feel even more adamantly that the movie falls short of the impact it wanted to have... if Flyora had seemed like a real person, we could've seen the war through his eyes as if we were truly there. With the film in its current state, it feels like a strange, disturbing dream, which is divorced from our everyday reality.I'll just quickly mention that the cinematography and sound are absolutely incredible. The tightness of the aspect ratio makes even the outdoor scenes feel claustrophobic. The sound and picture make you feel like you're constantly being squeezed, and just don't have room to breathe. Perfect for this film.Overall it's very impressive, and very well made. I don't feel like the surreal approach actually benefitted the movie as much as a more grounded approach would've, but that's my taste. I'd recommend the movie to anyone that can appreciate a slow burn, something that's off the beaten path, and a serious war film.

This is definitely one of the best war movies I've seen. Like any good war movie, it is disturbing and hard to watch. It's interesting to see the boy's journey from naive innocence to the worst of horrors. The acting is good and it feels very real

Great film but just wasn't my cup of tea. Very grimm and dark themes. It's reflective of life especially for the time and that part of the world. If you're looking for something sad and captivating this is it. You can't help but leave filling a bit empty after it. Bitter sweet. Everything else was great.

Starts of a little slow but gets better. It doesn't glamorize war but shows the brutality and dehumanizing effects of war on people.