I still cannot make much of that film. Made in 1967 and savagely ruined by the Soviet Censorship, it was never aired and promoted much, and I never heard of it until much later in modern Russia. I was intrigued and wanted to see this work. People told me it's a work of sheer genius and a sheer art. I watched it many times, very accurately and diligently. I still am deeply disturbed and confused. But then, what do we know about war? Is it a grand epic Technicolor feature with great actors and epic special effects? Or is it a dull deep monotony of pain and misery? Here, it is neither. It is so casual, simple and brutal, that you just sit with an open jaw. Yes, I agree that often the camera work makes it almost impossible to grasp who shoots and who is killed and why. But then, this is a severe and sober reality of war - dry, vapid, gory, sad, hopeless, tragic, heinous, suffocating and dreary. This was probably like it was. No heroism every minute or acts of feat. Maybe. But for the most part, it was dry and painful. Just like the movie
Review of The Red and the White
