Come and See

[ten ocho recon scout]

Should probably put this in the what have you watched recently thread, but figured I would make a separate thread, for anyone who might be interested who don't check that thread often (like me)

Come and See is an old movie (80s). Came out of the Soviet Union, about WW2 in Belarus. 

Critically acclaimed and for good reason. Wasn't available out here for years (maybe old VHS?). I bought the bluray of it a few years ago when it finally released.

It's available for streaming now (finally) on Amazon and Vudu.

The title is from the bible. About the 7 seals.

For its time it was very brutal. Movies since have become bloodied, so it's not anything that will shock like when it first came out.

But it's absolutely worth a watch. Very good, very depressing.

Eastern Front was hell on earth...

Couldn't recommend it more for anyone who's into war movies, or the subject.

 

[ten ocho recon scout]

 

[WicketMaiden]

Of a similar type and age, Cross of Iron is pretty good. Another gritty movie from the Eastern Front.

 

[Catwhoshatinthehat]

Thanks for the heads up.  I remember seeing Come and See listed as one of the best war movies ever in various articles but at the time it wasn’t streaming anywhere. According to IMDB they wanted to hypnotize the main character through the violent scenes so as to not screw him up but he wasn’t susceptible to hypnotizing. By the time the movie was finished shooting supposedly his hair had started to grey. Another one I want to see which I think was a made for tv movie is Shot Through The Heart which was about two friends who are snipers on opposite sides of the war in Sarajevo.   Haven’t been able to find that yet. 

[Don]

Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History did a podcast series called Ghosts of the Ost Front about ten years ago that is excellent. That theater of the war was just unrivaled in both scale and mutual brutality. 

[ten ocho recon scout]

On 5/30/2023 at 2:55 PM, WicketMaiden said:

Of a similar type and age, Cross of Iron is pretty good. Another gritty movie from the Eastern Front.

 

Funny enough, I've never seen it, but randomly watched a clip of that yesterday. I'll have to sit down and watch it one of these days.

[ten ocho recon scout]

On 5/30/2023 at 3:16 PM, Catwhoshatinthehat said:

Thanks for the heads up.  I remember seeing Come and See listed as one of the best war movies ever in various articles but at the time it wasn’t streaming anywhere. According to IMDB they wanted to hypnotize the main character through the violent scenes so as to not screw him up but he wasn’t susceptible to hypnotizing. By the time the movie was finished shooting supposedly his hair had started to grey. Another one I want to see which I think was a made for tv movie is Shot Through The Heart which was about two friends who are snipers on opposite sides of the war in Sarajevo.   Haven’t been able to find that yet. 

Not sure if it was makeup or not, but the kid actor in it totally ages through the course of the movie.

Shot through the heart... brings back memories. Years ago I converted all my old DVDs to digital.

That was one of the few I kept, since I wasn't able to convert it with Vudu.

Absolutely phenomenal movie. Would kill for it to be available to stream. (Maybe HBO max?)

That's always been one of my faves.

So much time has passed that its almost forgotten about today. But the Yugoslav wars of the 90s were brutal. And that movie did a great job of portraying thr Sarajevo siege. 

Something like 3 years or something that city was surrounded and under siege. Can't imagine that.

[ten ocho recon scout]

On 5/30/2023 at 3:16 PM, Catwhoshatinthehat said:

Thanks for the heads up.  I remember seeing Come and See listed as one of the best war movies ever in various articles but at the time it wasn’t streaming anywhere. According to IMDB they wanted to hypnotize the main character through the violent scenes so as to not screw him up but he wasn’t susceptible to hypnotizing. By the time the movie was finished shooting supposedly his hair had started to grey. Another one I want to see which I think was a made for tv movie is Shot Through The Heart which was about two friends who are snipers on opposite sides of the war in Sarajevo.   Haven’t been able to find that yet. 

Just looked it up. It's uploaded on YouTube right now. Might want to watch it in case it gets taken down.

[ten ocho recon scout]

13 hours ago, Don said:

Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History did a podcast series called Ghosts of the Ost Front about ten years ago that is excellent. That theater of the war was just unrivaled in both scale and mutual brutality. 

I don't have the time to read anymore like I used to (sadly). I keep buying books and putting them on the shelf for later.

But I just started the audio book for "Bloodlands". It's one of the highest reviewed books on the East Front. Free on YouTube.

I think even people who are interested in the subject aren't really aware of how absolutely terrible that war was.... you have to literally go back to ancient times to match the barbarity and scale of it.

And I think it's important to remember that the nazis were pure evil... but Stalin was just a tick below them....

My first few times to Eastern Europe, as a huge WW2 buff, I'd always ask the locals "be honest... you must still hate the Germans, eh?"

And I swear that to a T, almost universally, each person I asked (several, in several countries... Ukraine... Poland... Lithuania... Latvia... Estonia... etc etc), each replied "meh.... that was a long time ago. 

.... we hate the Russians more than anyone else."

I stopped asking anyone after awhile, since it was so universal.

And that's not trying to downplay the nazis... again, they were absolute evil. It's just that the Soviets (which they almost all were at some point) were almost just as bad... and around decades longer.

[WicketMaiden]

5 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Funny enough, I've never seen it, but randomly watched a clip of that yesterday. I'll have to sit down and watch it one of these days.

It's well worth the time. Excellent cast and quite gritty in parts, especially for that era in cinema. It does a very good job of challenging the notion of glamour and glory in wartime.