Miklos Jansco's masterful non-narrative war film "The Red and the White" is perhaps the epitome of strictly objective war film-making. No side is taken, no side is followed, nothing is explicitly stated. While, granted, it appears fairly obvious Jansco opposes war itself as witnessed in vignette after brutally honest and distancing vignette, the viewer is never following one side in this conflict. In fact one often loses sight of which side is which, causing all combatants to meld together into a singular chaotic entity that simply fights because it must. It may be a reflection on drawn out conflict in general where the reasons for such exaggerated violence vanish and the world spins into a deranged circus of blood and flak.
The long take as engineered by Jansco helps perpetrate the voyeuristic sense in the viewer. Dolly track lines the countryside as we are forced to watch unending bouts of suffering and anguish when we want nothing more than to look away. This is a film that firmly clutches us by the chin and shouts "No! You are going to watch this!" There are no cutaways to safety here. Neither are there any close-ups, as Jansco keeps us as distant as he can so we have no individuals to sympathize with, just humanity itself. Not until the final shot does the camera move into a specific soldier's face as if to remind us after 90 minutes of savagery that yes, these people are human after all, and they must endure the repercussions for their actions.
The long take as engineered by Jansco helps perpetrate the voyeuristic sense in the viewer. Dolly track lines the countryside as we are forced to watch unending bouts of suffering and anguish when we want nothing more than to look away. This is a film that firmly clutches us by the chin and shouts "No! You are going to watch this!" There are no cutaways to safety here. Neither are there any close-ups, as Jansco keeps us as distant as he can so we have no individuals to sympathize with, just humanity itself. Not until the final shot does the camera move into a specific soldier's face as if to remind us after 90 minutes of savagery that yes, these people are human after all, and they must endure the repercussions for their actions.