I'm going to watch this again before I give a full review but I can say with certainty that in parts it plays like a hellish companion piece to Apocalypse Now.

I've watched this film a grand total of twice, including last night so I could write about while it was fresh in my mind and I know I'll NEVER watch it again, because I don't think I'll ever see a film that hollowed out my soul quite like this one did.

I'm not even sure how I'd grade it, cinema can bring up many emotions ranging from enjoyment to pain to everything in between but "Come and See" is nothing less then a deranged descent into hell.

Its not a audience friendly movie in any manner, it's full of bizarre art house style moments and the first 40 minutes play exactly like the insane cousin of Apocalypse Now minus the bombast and Jim Morrison soundtrack, the camera seems to be bent on a mission to torture the viewer.

It lingers on characters faces for extended lengths of time forcing you to stare into the innocent eyes of Floyra (the main character, a teenage Soviet Partisan in 1943 Belarus) his childlike expression turning into a reminder of what the true horror of war inflicts on the mind as you watch the innocent stripped away the further into the film one goes.

In fact I would love for Makeshift to watch this since he's a man with a love of camera techniques and angles, I'd need another perspective on it, because I've never seen camera work that bores thru people quite like "Come And See".

It's a intensely intimate story of war, the entire running time is dedicated to following Floyra thru the villages of war torn Belarus, everything you see, you see thru him. It makes movies like Letters From Iwo Jima and The Thin Red Line (A movie I disliked but I could appreciate what it was trying to do) look like nothing more then Michael Bay style action blockbusters.

The level of emotion that the actor playing Floyra displays simply thru facial expression is easily the best I've ever seen, everything from gleeful happiness to paralyzing fear is convade in this manner and it puts the best of the Oscar winners to shame, I never want to see the expression etched across his face as the town barn full of people burns ever again.

And its the Barn burning sequence that is far and away the most chilling. The sheer madness of it is to much to bare at points, the drunk almost zombified German SS men, the frantic civilians and the commander complete with a face that looks like nothing more then a dead skull (and a freak little bug-eyed animal on his shoulder, not sure what it is) combine to create a moment of cinema that to watch once is more then enough, to watch twice is torture.

I said at the start that I don't know how to grade it and I'm serious, it is simultaneously the best and worst movie I have ever seen. It delivers what it promises more effectively then any movie I've ever seen, but at no point is it enjoyable, and in the end your left with nothing but the dull ominous drone of the Heinkel bomber (which litters some of the films more contemplative moments) ringing in your ears and the reality that war truly is hell.

There is a Empire magazine quote on the DVD release I have of the movie which reads "This is War as Hollywood could never portray it" its completely right. Hollywood would be mad to make a movie like this. The WOM would be poisonous it would be derided for its lack of a sad score, its distinctly un-multiplex friendly structure or its refusal to offer any light in the darkness, it makes a Terence Malick movie look as relaxing on the brain as an episode of Married with Children.

Forced to give a grade I'd say

A+

But to that I'd add the caveat that to watch it once is more then enough, at least then you can say you truly know what an Anti-War movie is suppose to be, because until you've seen "Come And See" you haven't a clue what your talking about.

This the netflix link for you lucky American's

http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?mov ... 0_0&hnjr=5

Not sure if its the remastered version released in Europe althou i would fail to see the difference since unremitting grimness can be remastered only so much.

I'm going to be like Lecter with his Downfall in prodding you lot to watch this (only once thou, i wouldn't expect anybody to endure it twice like i did) because I don't want to be the only poor sap that has seen it.

idi i smotri, idi i smotri, i've seen it, gullimont. idi i smotri. it features nazis and a koboldmaki. nazi-koboldmaki. a tarsier. do you know what that is? come and see. come and see. idi i smotri. spielberg knows it. it's good. i would watch it again. not only once or twice or thrice. it's been some time since i last watched it. i should watch it again. it will come to me and i will see it. hahahahahahahaha. i recommend tarkovsky's "ivanovo detstvo" (ivan's childhood/my name is ivan) [1962] for more russian children in war. check it out gullimont. otherwise you're not a real man. not even a tarsier-eating man. good night.

War! What is good for? Well, Come and See would agree with the next line - absolutely nothing. It is particularly barbaric on smaller countries that get invaded by bigger countries. They lose everything else the grand empire's lose next to nothing. Their lives are forever ruined while the bad guy soldiers just get to go home. Pretty similiar to whats happening in Ukriane and Iraq, exept we and the Putins aren't quite as evil as the nazis.

Is I hadn't already known and agreed with all those previous statements this would have been an extremely powerful and touching movie. Instead, I was mostly just looking at my phone (I did the full 31 song ranking of TPD while watching this) and didn't care most of the time. The only part that really connects is when he has a girlfriend for about 15 minutes before it descends back into just showing horrific things happening all the time. I think 'love in the hottest of hells' is a concept that could have carried the movie, but the girl is forgotten about. This would probably be a miniseries today since none of the segments really connect with each other besides the central theme of "War is bad."

So I'll give the movie a 5.5/10 and only that high out of respect for its influence on future movies and striking imagery with what was likely a limited budget under a communist Russia that did not want this movie to be made.