This legendary film from Soviet director Elem Klimov is a senses-shattering plunge into the dehumanizing horrors of war. As Nazi forces encroach on his small village in Belorussia, teenage Flyora (Alexei Kravchenko, in a searing depiction of anguish) eagerly joins the Soviet resistance. Rather than the adventure and glory he envisioned, what he finds is a waking nightmare of unimaginable carnage and cruelty—rendered with a feverish, otherworldly intensity by Klimov’s subjective camera work and expressionistic sound design. Nearly blocked from being made by Soviet censors, who took seven years to approve its script, Come and See is perhaps the most visceral, impossible-to-forget antiwar film ever made. Blu-ray special edition features • New 2K digital restoration by Mosfilm, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack • New interview with cinematographer Roger Deakins • New interview with director Elem Klimov’s brother and frequent collaborator German Klimov • Flaming Memory, a three-film documentary series from 1975–77 by filmmaker Viktor Dashuk featuring firsthand accounts of survivors of the genocide in Belorussia during World War II • Interview from 2001 with Elem Klimov • Interviews from 2001 with actor Alexei Kravchenko and production designer Viktor Petrov • How “Come and See” Was Filmed, a 1985 short film about the making of the film featuring interviews with Elem Klimov, Kravchenko, and writer Ales Adamovich • Theatrical rerelease trailer • New English subtitle translation • PLUS: Essays by critic Mark Le Fanu and poet Valzhyna Mort.
B**N
Spectacular. Encoded for both Regions A and B
This film is simply incredible. Criterion has done an amazing job restoring it to the highest possible quality and the supplementary material is also great.Films like this do not come along often. It immerses you into the horrors of war and feels as though you are experiencing it with the characters.But be warned - it is very harrowing so don't expect to be smiling afterwards.
J**E
Cinematic masterpiece
Amazing film. Absolute must watch if your into ww2 or just great cinema. Great service from the seller too.
B**B
Brilliant re-release
The Criterion relaease of this horrors-of-war classic can be recommended without reservation.I had the DVD years ago and this is a completely different class of home media. The 2K transfer sparkles, there are no artefacts as far as we could see on an HD screen, the sound is true and precise and the subtitles are clear and east to read. It was like watching a film on a screen in a good arthouse cinema, and there is no higher accolade than that.
M**S
Brutal film
I've been a big fan of this film since seeing it on UK TV about 10 years ago. This upgrade is amazing and looks so clean. Not a scratch on it. As well as that, this import bluray worked on my UK only bluray player without any fuss. I didn't even need to try it on my multi-region player - one that I bought so that I could buy this disc!
P**R
Worth The Wait
I've waited years for a remastered blu ray version (i have two dvd versions, the picture quality is no better than VHS), and it was worth the wait. One of the greatest (anti) war films ever made now has the picture quality to really show off its brilliance. The last 50 minutes has to be seen to be believed, a truly devastating indictment of the horrors that man can inflict on fellow humans.
R**M
Great film. Shipped to UK (Region B) and works perfectly
Great film. Shipped to UK (Region B) and works perfectly
O**9
The blu ray works on region B 4K player no issues
Great film , as above
M**D
More akin to an Art House movie
When I read the reviews of Come and See I imagined something between a Russian All Quiet on the Western Front and Saving Private Ryan. I couldn’t understand how a “masterpiece” of such harrowing depictions had completely escaped me. Now I know why.After spending what to me was an extraordinary amount of money to buy the blu ray I found instead of the film I had imagined, something more akin to an art house movie. Lots of staring at the camera with anguished expressions, some pointless symbolism, a cast of several, a budget so small that all the battle scenes are enacted off-screen and a finale where the supreme Soviet effort to roll back the Nazi onslaught is portrayed by the underwhelming device of running war newsreel backwards.If you can buy this for a nominal amount then have a look, if only for Roger Deakins commentary, but otherwise you may want to think again.
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