Come and See: The Scariest War Film Ever Made 

Great video on one of the greatest films ever made! You're right about the potential for evil that lies latent within each and every one of us, and there is always the potential for our past mistakes to repeat themselves. However I err towards optimism in regard to evil. The world is certainly a much better place than it once was, and I think if we don't destroy ourselves, society will inevitably become more homogenous and when that happens I imagine you'll see less evil in the world, though a complete erasure of it is likely impossible. Even so, the amount of time that will take is unfathomable. It could be a thousand years before we're rid of major wars or other insidious crimes. The peasants of 11th century England could scarcely imagine what the 21st century would be like, and though it seems improbable I think the far future, should it be allowed to exist, is one of unparalleled joy for all that we can't imagine. But we might not make it there. We might see the rise of Come and See like events once again, and the destruction of everything we know. Only time will tell. Here's to your success, and I look forward to future releases from you!

"Come And See" is a masterpiece of Soviet realism, there is no idealism, no romanticism, no super heroic heroism of an unrealistic protagonist, no, there is only war, it's perpetrators, it's victims, and, far away from the carnage, safe from the horror, the benefactors and lobbyists of war, stand, silently looming over the sorrows of the battlefield; profiteering all the way.

The writer of this screenplay experienced most of these things during his time as a Belarusian partisan during WW2. That is one of the most frightening things to imagine.

The final montage of Florya firing into the portrait is a devastating counter to the very idea of heroic war films. As he shoots, the music rises to a heroic crescendo, the historic clips of moments of violence and power run backwards, a ruined city is rebuilt, but we cut back to Florya. He fires again, and advancing armies retreat, guns are un-fired, bombs un-dropped, but we cut back to Florya. He fires again, and Hitler's rise to power rolls backwards, the very face of the war reduced and taken away, but we cut back to Florya. He fires again and again and again, music triumphant as all the worst deeds of this war are un-done in front of us. But these vanish, and we are left, again and again, with only Florya, his fear, his hurt, his rage etched into him like the lines on his face. It is a scene of the most extreme fantasy, intercut with the reality of Florya's face. No amount of 'heroic' violence can ever undo what has been done by violence. You cannot cut away a scar left by war. You can kill the man and even the idea of Hitler, push all his armies out of Byelorussia, kill every man who ever fought in his name. You may have to, if you want to end this. But it will not rebuild a single village, bring back a single life, or empty a single mass grave. The fantasy of heroic violence is impossible - you can tell yourself to the end of time that this will restore things to the way they used to be, but in the end the only thing heroic violence ever produces is Florya, and uncounted people just like him. Perhaps there is such a thing as a necessary war - but there is never, ever a heroic one.

I kind of consider this to be a antiwar film more than a war film. It's a very powerful film that isn't talked about very much now which it should be.

Man this film leaves a permanent mark on your soul and at the end you realise it all actually happened

To me the real evil is ignorance. People dont want to watch Come And See even if they have too ( i strongly believe Come And See should be part of every school curriculum). Because its like this. if your religous god created free will to see what we will do with it. if your athiest then you have no one else to blame but yourself. we are all good and evil we just need to learn that we have the capacity of both. even children can throw violent tantrums. what more a grown adult with authority

Things really become weird when you hear stories about the events of the Come and See from the people who actually seen that. My grandparents were pretty much the same age as Floyra in the movie, they have told me about what war is from a very young age. And now I'm sitting here, writing this comment to the sounds of air raid sirens, in the middle of an outrageous war, that took only two (or three) generations of people to completely forget about those events and start again. Show this to your children. Teach them. War is a gruesome fucking thing that have no limits in it's brutality. No amounts of propaganda should be able to told them otherwise.

I dont know if I can watch it again, but yes a masterpiece. It begins with a mother's stern warning not to go picking up partisans weapons from the battlefield, and it's all downhill from there😬. The brutality, dehumanisation is just a fraction of what the German forces did in the East, beyond prying eyes.

I would say that he did kill his inner Hitler when he didn’t fire that shot at baby Hitler and his mom. Him rejoining the Partisans was a way of him reconciling the evil within himself to fight as needed but having confronted the evil in himself, he would be able to fight for one’s home as one should when faced which such evil and horror.

it's the bleakest, most horrific and most extraordinarily artful war film I have ever seen. I never need to watch it again because my memory of seeing it is still so ingrained into my mind that all of its moments will never leave me. it might even be the greatest film that's ever been made

I remember reading somewhere that klimov said Flyora survived the war but only through dumb luck and not any sort of personal skill

"the scariest part of war and war crimes is that the potential for such brutality lies dormant inside each and every one of us" I am liable to subscribe just for that. So few realize that almost all of us would do these things if give the right (or wrong) circumstances.

I never see people talking about the cold aura of the Partisans. You sense camaraderie, human warmth, and anything to the like? It adds to the overall brutality of it all.

Come and See is the most scarily intense and realistic film I've ever seen. Took ages to shake off.

General Sherman said "war is hell!", but that's not strictly true; In Hell there are no innocents.

This film is a perfect example of realistic horror. The fact that evil in all of us is very scary and it's even more terrifying that we must contain it so we don't repeat the actions of those before us.

One masterpiece deserves another. An essential movie and an outstanding video my man. Really needed to hear this one today. Subscribed! Keep up the great work👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽

The part in the film that hasn't been commented on is when the Crane shows up. Was that her children that were in the nest that were stepped on. Did she come to judge the murderer of her babies?

The Jungian shadow is neatly encapsulated by the Japanese expression “the bigger the front the bigger the back.”

For me it's the scariest film ever made, from the technical standpoint, the sound design is specially remarkable and really induces fear. It's an amazing movie, though to watch but like you said, it should be seen at least once, truly an odyssey into the madness of war. It's a nightmarish experience, it's like a depiction of hell

I love how immersive this film is. The steady cam is almost documentary like, the casting of the villagers and the location/ sets, the use of blank ammunition for superb sound design, the way the main character processes trauma is so visceral and real. A film of pure anxiety, despair, and pure evil War is a man made force of nature that not only brings death and destruction, but also strips away morality and societal constructs, exposing the true nature that lies within us. Peak cinema, very anti escapist. Great review!

My wife and i watched this film a couple of weeks ago here on YT. What a brutal and magnificent work of art. The acting was impeccable, amateurs or not.

This video is a masterpiece, very insightful and thought provoking.

Incredible analysis, thank you so much. I'm excited to be a new subscriber of yours - I can tell that you very much take your time.

If to remember is what sets us apart, then this one act, vengeance, is possible only for us. Our history is built on it as much as any other part of our being and is, at once, our most noble, and our most ignoble aspect.

This movie is so hopefully hopeless, or should I say hopelessly hopeful? It shows so preciously little light and so much darkness that little light shines like a sun but does little to cast the darkness away. Its like hope and horror in this movie are so painfully aware of each other that they can't help themselves but to outline the opposite. The dark moments are probably the darkest any movie can get but the lighter moments are so full of hope and the spirit of repulse against the dark. Was there ever a movie that showed the duality of man so well and so deep?

Thnx a lot for this deep rewiev of this movie.

Thanks for the essay my friend.

Very insightful, thank you so much!

You do really good analyses of movies! I found your channel because I wanted to watch Threads on RU-vid and saw your video about it. (I watched Threads via the Internet Archive/Wayback Machine, that’s the only place I could find it). Subscribed!

I watched Come and See about a year ago. It is easily the most horrifying film I have ever seen. Thank you for this impressive review of the film. Your narration, timbre and word choice remind me of Rod Serling and very fittingly describes the human condition as he did.

This movie scared me and made me extremely distraught This is one of the few movies that made me upset enough to cry

It's funny how you talked about how baby Hitler was a clean slate and then later you quoted Carl Jung. Because according to Jung every person is born with certain personality traits that they keep for the rest of their life. He was infact so certain of this that he also categorized people into personality types based on that theory. This view on personality traits within the field of personality psychology have long been considered outdated by now though. Side note: this isn't meant to be criticism. Just some trivia for anyone interested.

When him and the girl are running from that cabin in the first act and it reveals piles of naked dead bodies was one of the most unnerving scenes in a war flick I ever seen. To add to that; this boys transformation is INSANELY well done.

You sir, has a fantastic channel and you've gotten a faithful subscriber.

im only a few videos in and i have to say you're among the absolute best, the way you speak is almost artful, every word is chosen carefully to deliver the proper impact for such description of the darkest parts of us all, let alone exploring such rich and untouched subject matter, takes a bit of confidence to tackle it in such a well-spoken, eloquent way that really makes you think it's almost criminal that you don't have more people tuning into your videos, but the youtube monetization machine seems to skip over these sorts of things due to the gruesome subject matter. nonetheless, with your quality of writing being on par with the films you review themselves, im sure you'll keep a steady incline, keep it up guy(s), and ill be ringing that dang ol' bell

I love this channel!

I watched this for the first time last night and it’s the most harrowing experience I’ve had while watching a movie. I’ve watched SPR but I’m yet to watch Apocalypse now, Deer Hunter and Platoon as I’ve heard they are some of the greatest.

There was a very strange feature in this case, strange because of its extremely rare occurrence. This man had once been brought to the scaffold in company with several others, and had had the sentence of death by shooting passed upon him for some political crime. Twenty minutes later he had been reprieved and some other punishment substituted; but the interval between the two sentences, twenty minutes, or at least a quarter of an hour, had been passed in the certainty that within a few minutes he must die. I was very anxious to hear him speak of his impressions during that dreadful time, and I several times inquired of him as to what he thought and felt. He remembered everything with the most accurate and extraordinary distinctness, and declared that he would never forget a single iota of the experience. ‘About twenty paces from the scaffold, where he had stood to hear the sentence, were three posts, fixed in the ground, to which to fasten the criminals (of whom there were several). The first three criminals were taken to the posts, dressed in long white tunics, with white caps drawn over their faces, so that they could not see the rifles pointed at them. Then a group of soldiers took their stand opposite to each post. My friend was the eighth on the list, and therefore he would have been among the third lot to go up. A priest went about among them with a cross: and there was about five minutes of time left for him to live. ‘He said that those five minutes seemed to him to be a most interminable period, an enormous wealth of time; he seemed to be living, in these minutes, so many lives that there was no need as yet to think of that last moment, so that he made several arrangements, dividing up the time into portions-one for saying farewell to his companions, two minutes for that; then a couple more for thinking over his own life and career and all about himself; and another minute for a last look around. He remembered having divided his time like this quite well. While saying good- bye to his friends he recollected asking one of them some very usual everyday question, and being much interested in the answer. Then having bade farewell, he embarked upon those two minutes which he had allotted to looking into himself; he knew beforehand what he was going to think about. He wished to put it to himself as quickly and clearly as possible, that here was he, a living, thinking man, and that in three minutes he would be nobody; or if somebody or something, then what and where? He thought he would decide this question once for all in these last three minutes. A little way off there stood a church, and its gilded spire glittered in the sun. He remembered staring stubbornly at this spire, and at the rays of light sparkling from it. He could not tear his eyes from these rays of light; he got the idea that these rays were his new nature, and that in three minutes he would become one of them, amalgamated somehow with them. ‘The repugnance to what must ensue almost immediately, and the uncertainty, were dreadful, he said; but worst of all was the idea, ‘What should I do if I were not to die now? What if I were to return to life again? What an eternity of days, and all mine! How I should grudge and count up every minute of it, so as to waste not a single instant!’ He said that this thought weighed so upon him and became such a terrible burden upon his brain that he could not bear it, and wished they would shoot him quickly and have done with it.’

about pasolini was my 1st ep on this channel. instant subscriber, thanks i haven't watch the movie but base on your analysis it sums up like the "eye-opening scene at the end of a clockwork o" probably?

Well stated.

Your reviews are brilliant. I aspire to make observations with the same eloquence as you one day with my own developing channel

Well constructed 🔥!

Hi

Elim Klimov was born in Stalingrad and as a child evacuated the city across the Volga on a makeshift raft under gunfire. That experience certainly inspired much of his work on Come and See.

Unfortunately we are all doomed to repeat the same mistakes and same neverenidng circle of violence. The prime example of why i think that way is right in your video. You talked about good and evil, rights and wrongs, the exclusion of moral high ground etc.. And all we see is Nazis and Soviets and Bred Pitt in shining armor. Everyone is the hero of his own story - that's for sure.

My first impression was a very strong one,’ repeated  the prince. ‘When they took me away from Russia, I  remember I passed through many German towns and  looked out of the windows, but did not trouble so much  as to ask questions about them. This was after a long series  of fits. I always used to fall into a sort of torpid condition  after such a series, and lost my memory almost entirely;  and though I was not altogether without reason at such  times, yet I had no logical power of thought. This would  continue for three or four days, and then I would recover  myself again. I remember my melancholy was intolerable;  I felt inclined to cry; I sat and wondered and wondered  uncomfortably; the consciousness that everything was  strange weighed terribly upon me; I could understand that  it was all foreign and strange. I recollect I awoke from this  state for the first time at Basle, one evening; the bray of a  donkey aroused me, a donkey in the town market. I saw  the donkey and was extremely pleased with it, and from  that moment my head seemed to clear.’  ‘A donkey? How strange! Yet it is not strange. Anyone  of us might fall in love with a donkey! It happened in mythological times,’ said Madame Epanchin, looking  wrathfully at her daughters, who had begun to laugh. ‘Go  on, prince.’  ‘Since that evening I have been specially fond of  donkeys. I began to ask questions about them, for I had  never seen one before; and I at once came to the  conclusion that this must be one of the most useful of  animals-strong, willing, patient, cheap; and, thanks to  this donkey, I began to like the whole country I was  travelling through; and my melancholy passed away.’

This is a fantastic video. This seems like a hard movie to sit through, but necessary. History is doomed to repeat itself as we can see today. Not to mention those atrocities depicted in the movie didn't happen all too long ago. I can't help but wonder what he would think of shows like Vinland Saga and Attack on Titan which major themes are about war.

Great, very well thought out video, and I geniuanly mean that. The problems I see that complicate things even further than you've already stated are our lack of knowledge towards what is objective which stem from our biases. Lets say that you truely have the strength to not conform to the moral standards of your society and stand up for what you believe as an indivitual. That you always abide by your principales and conscience no matter what others tell you. Great job then, you're one of the few true brave ones... But how do you know that you are right? The way I see it is, even if you're clear on what your principales are, even if you believe with every fiber of your being that you are objectively right and that you're standing up towards objective evil, you can never be truely sure of that. Especially when the other side probably thinks the same way. Out of the nearly infinite number of opinions, beliefs, and moral codes that there have been, are, and will be, the chances that you are obectively correct, assuming that there even is such a thing, are actually pretty low. You said it yourself; cosmic heroes often end up being the cause of systematic evil. Your response to that statement was to find, identify, know and kill the shadow, but what if different people have different opinions on what one's shadow even is in the first place? I guess what I respectfully disagree with you on is that we can be so sure about what objective evil is, and that what I'm trying to say is, whatever you do, be it following your beliefs and being your own hero in all circumstances, or mindlessly abiding to your society's beliefs and being a cultural hero, you are taking a risk as our opinions on morality, and pretty much everything, are always biased by our environment and genetics. Expecting a human being to know objectivity or be objective is not reasonable because we, by nature, are subjective creatures, each with our own biased, subjective, distorted and tainted version of the truth. To be clear, I do not mean to encourage not standing up for what you believe in or not staying true to yourself to fit in, I am merely stating that even then you can't be sure you're "good" and that you're taking a gamble. Sorry that comment was so long lol, got carried away.

I just finished this movie and I really cannot shake the feeling of just wanting to cry. This is absolutely an incredible movie but oh my god, it is just harrowing. Definitely gonna be contemplating this movie for a while.

Come and See is arguably one of the greatest films ever made. Elim Klimov only made 3 to 4 films, in 85 this was seen even then as one of a list of War films, it's only later you realise it transcends its genre, its horror, thriller, war, all rolled into one. Majestic is a word i would use but not in the euphoric sense but clearly as a warning of the depths humanity sinks if allowed to reign free and run amok. Disapointed you juxtaposed the hack Tarantino's 'cartoon 'Inglorious Basterds' to this piece of art as some equivalence of evil, Tarantino could only dream of making a film this magnificent. Btw it is Belarussian.

In the war between two evils it’s the innocent who suffer the most

Many soldiers say "There is no more vicious a soldier than an 18 year old who had lost friends to the enemy

I can also recommend: Land of Mine it's hard to stomach but it also has a "happy ending" which takes a lot from the message: That even the victims can become perpetrators.

an incredible movie, one of those that will always be in my collection ...

Good video with many truths.However I certainly didn't see the main theme as 'evil exists in all of us'. Rather that its main theme is the suffering & dehumanisation of war. That it succeeds in portraying this theme with such honesty & realism, is testament to its well deserved reputation as one of the greatest anti-war films. Did it need any more of a theme? Not really.

Rene Girard's ideas of mimetic theory and of the scapegoat are all over this. A good portion of the wording you used in this video makes it seems like you've read him. If not, that just shows how right he was about these things being hidden since the beginning.

It may not be the best war movie, but I think it is the most real war movie ever made. I think all war movies should be anti-war movies if they are shown honestly.

This movie changed my life completely. It was then I realized I would make sacrifices I never thought I would make in life. People today have no idea what's coming to them. Especially in Canada. This evil is exactly the kind of thing they want to bring back.

This movie and video get to a point I deeply personally believe, evil and hatred are taught and learned. It's not innate. It's inevitable because we live in a culture that perpetuates it. It needs to be fought on a personal and cultural level. Fought with education. Fought by changing how we raise our children.

This film is shocking, brutal and one you can't shut out. I am amazed it was made in 1985 it hasn't aged in any way. - The whole film is incredible, terrifying and intense.

Thank you

Great video. Is there a listing you have of all the film clips sampled within? I recognized a few

one of the german soldiers also said something along the lines of "It all starts with children, thats why I said to leave them in the barn". Maybe Florian also saw and realised that

I killed my inner Magnus Hirschfeld already.

Hey I was looking forward to this

What movie was that around 27:50? Oh and bravo👏🏻 an outstanding piece you created there

I keep trying to watch this. I need to steel myself first maybe. And I don't normally give any reaction to most horror or war movies.... This is something else entirely.

Come and See & 1917 are the only war movies to get me very invested and immersed like I was there. I think the fact that they used live ammunition, real Nazi uniforms, real WW2 vehicles, killed a cow, etc just adds to the immersion. Fantastic film.

War brings out the people in people. When there is no accountability to actions, and those actions go unpunished, one is nigh on rewarded in sewing evil. As such, war tests weather or not we are able to contain the evil within us, or allow it to escape; we all have evil, that potential to do wrong, and war allows us to see if we let it.

I thought this was a movie discussion but it's a pompous, bloated diatribe! It sounds like you are reading your term paper.

Masterpiece.

To make the movie more bearable, I like to imagine the Slow Loris is actually the mastermind behind the SS brigade we see.

I thought it was interesting that the only time Fliora ever used his weapon, was at the very end of the movie. He never hurt anybody.

Connecting with the joy of looking at beautiful things. This will make you fall in love with life. The beauty of when I walk out of my house, I look at trees, cars, the sun, the clouds, the desert, where I live. Even my own body. When I look at my own body I just get joy out of looking at the beauty of my own body. My body is a work of art. I can connect with that um. Just that alone is enough to create an amazingly fulfilling life.

The most fascinating exploration of the baby Hitler question is the Birthday Boys sequence in which two assassins go back in time and end up adopting Hitler to raise him right.

Was relevant 2 years ago and it’s relevant again now

“The rape of Nanking” is wayyy more scary also ww2

can someone tell me the title of the films that were clipped in this video? ty

BRAVO!

I would realy like a yugoslav war film in this type of style.

kommen sie is pronounced that gives another feeling. Come and see is words from apocalypse.

What i have seen so far, first hour, this film, is pants, a man burnt all over laying on the floor, saying the Nazis burn him, with petrol all over? And his hats still on? Also his legs aren't burnt?

A monster lies within all of us; we must all acknowledge it and by doing so we become better people

Saving Private Ryan will always be my favorite war movie, but Come and See is so incredibly well made, surreal, and so so accurate. It forces you to stare our past in the face, and ask yourself how could we as Human beings let this happen. Could you have survived this? We must keep our past from repeating itself! It is the greatest anti-war film ever made! It doesn't glorify war, it shows the true monsters were men all along.

Is there a way to list the movie titles included in this video?

5:00 what's the music for this

The youtube link to the movie comes with a timestamp. Not a big deal at all, but you might want to remove the timestamp still.

I think, when it comes to everyone in world war 2 and world war 1, people become numb to death. In ww1, allied soldiers would even make jokes about dead bodies that they could identify for many months or years. In ww2, the killing of people became so common to see that it no longer held any shock at the time. Include that with intense alcohol and substance abuse, it becomes something that no one can understand unless you witnessed it. However, many of these soldiers on the allied and axis side only really started suffering mentally far after the initial shot. And suffered for life from it. What causes this in the mind of people? I cannot say

Live rnds were used in certain scenes. Done as safely as possible off course. That is incredible. My family lived in Pinsk basically this is set in the area. If you think the movie is bad you should hear what my family had to say. I am very proud of them for keeping their integrity humanity in a insane world. I am proud of my grandfather my great uncle who fought the Nazis but sadly had to abandon what was home and never return to a Gulag. We live in the west now, well one does as time has msrched on. I have tried all my life to encourage others and give them perspective of what war really means.

Yeah this movie is definitely hard to watch. When all you're hearing for a while is muffled voices and ringing from the artillery it makes everything seem really off, like a fever dream. Seeing the stuff in the intro of this video makes me scared of what's in store for me 😶

The sort of war film that WILL NEVER come out of Hollywood. No heroes - no flag waving - just traumatized "survivors" - who will never be the same.

What are the movies shown in the video ?

@6:20 -- "Deranged"? It does nobody any good to look back on these figures as "crazy" people. They were very rational, enough to stir millions of people into action. That it's now politically acceptable to paint them as "crazy" doesn't excuse the fact that you're falsifying the history for the petty pleasure of spitting on their legacy. You get what you deserve when you dismiss a lion as a house cat.

Nah, I think I'll nurture mine.

What are the movies ?

This movie gave ny nightmares

Great video, some weird comments in here though. I'm guessing your channel attracts the philosopher crowd.

To me this film is about being haunted by undeserved guilt. I've spent a lot of time thinking about why Florya's facial expressions have become so imprinted in my mind, and I believe it's how well they portray the intersection of guilt and horror. I think the most important scene for understanding this is at the beginning when Florya finds the rifle and the recon plane flies overhead. Of course in hindsight we know that the atrocities he goes on to witness would happen regardless of his actions, but in Florya's eyes his decision to pick up that rifle directly leads to the death of everyone he loves. Throughout the rest of the movie, although he never voices it aloud, Florya is deeply troubled by the feeling that he is responsible for all the horrible things he's seeing, that the recon plane saw his rifle as evidence of partisan activity in the village and subsequently condemned it to destruction. I think by the end of the movie he realizes that this isn't true, that the horror was all inevitable and nothing is his fault, that joining the partisans in active resistance brings death first and foremost to the enemy, not just his countrymen. But it is a sacrifice made almost in vain, his family is already dead and the lacrimosa playing at the end suggests he is about to join them.