I had never heard of this film until reading James Schamus's top ten list on Criterion.com. A powerful film with incredible sequences. The opening five minutes has it all... exposition, beautiful reveals, dramatic framing and cutting and an opening title sequence that plays over a gun fight. Not sure I've ever seen that before. Sadly, director Larisa Shepitko passed at the age of 41 in a road accident. Imagine the classics she would have graced us with. I'm looking forward to watching her early film Krylya (Wings) which is also on the Criterion Channel. Won Berlin's Golden Bear in 1977.Watched on the Criterion Channel.
A film about an ascent, one that we presume to be topologically located on earth but ends up crossing into the heavenly sphere. The religious allusions have been mined in great detail by many, but what I found most interesting on this rewatch was the contrast between our two soldiers.Sotnikov is Christ, but he is also the younger of the two, the greenhorn who might not make it to next week, and of course the one who suffers the most. Early on he is shot and left for dead; about to be captured, he prepares to shoot himself. This is the moment of transformation, the moment when he has effectively accepted death and made peace with it. He's saved, but the moment can't be erased. He has witnessed something too powerful. From here on out death means nothing to him, and he understands his life too means nothing if he must trade it away for a greater, holier cause.Rybak is Judas, but he is also the older of the two, the hardened veteran who is strong enough to live this long, and strong enough to save Sotnikov from death itself. But it is in his daily struggle to survive, and his expertise in it, that he has internalized the value of his own life above all else. For him it is not a single moment of transformation, rather, he has slowly become Judas by always having been Judas and never witnessing his end in a way that thrusts him towards Christ. And so he quickly caves to external pressure, doing whatever he thinks is necessary if it means he will keep living. Even if it costs the lives of others.Usually it is the older, stronger, wiser who ends up being the martyr; here it is the fresh-faced innocent who dies for our sins, whereas the one who clings too hard onto earthly existence is fated to never ascend any higher. Before I was always unsure what to make of the closing shot and why exactly Rybak went mad, but now I understand. When the doors finally open, it only descends into hell.
From beginning to end, this was an incredible experience. I've never felt more helpless as a bystander watching the existential reflections of war, demise, and human nature. The premise is so simple and raw, yet it managed to take such an emotional hold on me as I watched the main protagonists' hour-by-hour experiences. Furthermore, the visuals are breathtakingly incredible, with every shot eliciting the desired feelings and highlighting the cold, expansive rural locations. Aside from its superb formal components and intensity, few films have left me with such a horrific sense of despair and evil. This has to be one of the best war films I've ever seen.
