Review by goatrope67

I watched this amazing film last night and it has stuck with me through the evening and still pops into my mind this morning. It was made in 1985 and recently had a 4K update done to it so it looks beautiful. It is a subtitled movie, so if you are not one for that, then avoid this one as it's 2 1/2 hours long.

It is about a boy who finds a rifle and wants to join partisan fighters in Russia in 1943. He starts the movie as an innocent boy with a huge grin, willing to do anything to be part of the fight. By the end of the movie he has seen so much that he looks like an old man. It is stark. Violent. Raw. Beautiful. Horrifying. I cannot even begin to describe it other than saying I believe it to be one of the best war films I've seen in a very long time. Throughout the movie the director focuses on faces, showing us how the war eats people alive from the inside out. At first I was caught off-guard by that, then I saw it for what it was and now can't get it out of my head.

Hopefully you read this before watching because you need to know there is a TRIGGER warning for my veteran friends out there. The filmmakers used live rounds during the making of the movie, which makes some of the scenes truly hard to watch. But, it lends to the overall feel and appeal of the movie. So, watch with caution.