Come and See

IMDb Link (really, check it out, look at the poster, it'll instantly tell you what a happy film this is)

Happy times, happy days, happy film. A laugh a minute. To give you an idea how hilarious it is, this is the story of the Einsatzgruppen in Belorussia. If you don't know who those happy campers were, well: they were the units going to places before the German army invaded, to clear out the population.

So, yes: it's horrible and it's horrific and it's disgusting and it's painful to watch. But rather than just showing us the Germans as the only perpetrators, rather than showing us the carnage and havoc they wreaked, the director goes beyond that, far beyond...

This film is about how fucked up we all are, this film is about the loss of innocence. This film is about how war seems cool when you're a kid, at least its idea. But then when you're deep in it, it stops being all fun and games. Say what you will, but having your whole family slaughtered kinda puts a crimp on your life.

The boy playing the main character does an incredible job, he truly looks as if he ages throughout the film and you see that reflected into his eyes, which is quite a feat.

On top of the horrible images, sound plays an important part. Not just Mozart's eerily cheery music or the bombs and tinnitus, but you feel that if the images won't make you go mad, the sound will. Especially the plane circling overhead, constantly. Watching, judging, having fun and killing. Hey, could the plane be a metaphor for God?

This is a coming-of-age story like Hollywood could never make. In an American film, the teenager ends up being disillusioned and in the end he learns about life and is the wiser for it. In this film, the boy starts out as a bright eyed kid with a gun, ready to play soldier with the grown ups. But then he goes temporarily deaf, then mad, then he snaps and finally just becomes one more soldier in the crowd. Sadly, in this crowd, there is now a newcomer, a kid who probably romanticizes war. And of course, if he doesn't end up dead, he'll end up as one of the men, with the thousand-mile stare.

Somewhere in there, it looks like a love story might bloom between the boy and a beautiful girl. But, right... as if there was time for love and fun and games in war time, stuck in a muddy forest. She represents the life that could have been his, if only. She also represents how nothing is or stays beautiful in this ugly world.

The director asks us: who is innocent? Are children innocent? In the end we see Hitler's life going backwards, all the way to pictures of him as a baby. Was he innocent then? Of course. So what created the monster? His family? The first world war? Well, that's the thing: He wasn't a monster. He was a man. Just a man.

What's very interesting and what goes beyond the usual clichés, is that this film also shows us a couple of Germans feeling remorseful, crying or puking. More importantly, it shows us the locals who sided with the invaders, how they tried not to be blamed, how they are in fact worse than the Nazis, in a way, because they were so eager to please and survive.
It also shows us the Nazis who claim this is only a job brought on by the ugliness of war, that it's not personal. But also you get the ones who even as they are looking down the barrels of the enemy's guns still stick to theirs (guns, that is), truly believing that what they are doing is the right thing.

This film is not for everybody, because it might be too uncomfortable to watch, although you don't have a lot of gore. But gore would have been easier to take than the psychological torture inflicted on the kid for over two hours. Plus, apparently, the director used LIVE ammo in some scenes, how insane is that?!

Anyway, in the end, there are no good guys or bad guys, just regular men perpetuating the cycle of murder and sorrow.