Ballad of a Soldier (1/22/19)
This so far has been my least favorite film of the course, not because it was bad per say, but because I found it really infuriating. Again, I know the part that I find infuriating isn't a bad part of the film it was just something that I found personally annoying. Sort of like when I read Catcher in the Rye in high school, a book that I similarly could not stand, but I understand the purpose of it like with this film. I get that it was in Alyosha's character to help others and be a kind young man but I got really sick of him missing his train. As someone who really likes to be on time and really gets anxious around airports and train stations this film made me incredibly anxious. This is not the film's fault it is just a personal feeling that I had while watching the film that made it incredibly enjoyable. I get that we were supposed to feel bad for Alyosha because he couldn't spend any time with his mom, and I get that he was such a good guy he just had to help everyone he came across but I just got so sick of it. Like whenever he wasn't moving or got distracted I just knew I would hear the train moving in the background and I got so sick of it really quickly.
I liked the idea of the film, I liked the structure of this sort of odyssey of generosity that Alyosha embarks on, meeting all these characters and sort of using his minimum resources to learn about them as characters and help them move on. I liked it in theory, however. I found Shura to be the most insufferable character. She was whiny and manipulative and very childish. Now to be fair this could be the intention, it could be depicting her as an innocent lonely young girl from the city. But I just couldn't stand her. I really enjoyed the crippled soldiers character and the guard in charge of protecting the hay. I also really liked the scenes where Alyosha interacted with other soldiers but scenes where there was awkward tension between him and Shura I couldn't stand. It really felt rushed and forced especially when they hide in the hay bail. It felt way too quick in a movie when Alyosha makes sure to slow every scene down to a halt so we know hes going to be late for a train.
The main interesting thing I found in this film was the differences between men and women in the film. Or at least that it was I saw it as, it could be the difference between two other things, perhaps something to do with classes or backgrounds but to me it seemed like a gender thing. Like when Alyosha reveals he only has one night to stay home the woman who is riding with him replies "how awful" while the man replies "that's lucky" or something like that. It kind of shows that the men are all more downtrodden in this war-ridden world than the women. That is not to say that the women had it easy because we are shown on multiple occasions that they did not. They had to pick up all the slack of the men who had to go put their lives on the line. Another example of the differences between men and women is shown in Pavlov's wife and father. His wife was disloyal to him and was very apathetic in receiving the gift, whereas his father was delighted for just a bar of soap and set out to do his best to give his son hope. The idea of waiting is important and in this film it really shows men as the patient ones. Even Alyosha's mother says a lines about she didn't wait for his father or something like that. That was just something that I found interesting.
Overall I really wasn't a fan of the movie. I liked the concept of the path of characters he meets and the difficulties he has to overcome. But I found it really irritating and I just couldn't get attached to this guy who kept making problems for himself. I get that it was sad and that the fact that he did it to himself makes it more tragic but I just really didn't care. It had a sort of bizarre thing where all the people that just cared for themselves survived and in some cases thrived, but the main character who is the one who stepped in to help all these people is in the end the one who suffers. This could be a metaphor for the soldiers that give their lives so everyone else can live on happily. Or it could be showing that when you do things for the community or the greater good (sort of like communism) you have to give up things for yourself. While this is not a blatant dig at communism it would definitely turn some people off on the idea. Overall this movie was well made, it had an interesting concept and it had some scenes I enjoyed but overall it was my least favorite film from this course and I left just being really annoyed overall.
I liked the idea of the film, I liked the structure of this sort of odyssey of generosity that Alyosha embarks on, meeting all these characters and sort of using his minimum resources to learn about them as characters and help them move on. I liked it in theory, however. I found Shura to be the most insufferable character. She was whiny and manipulative and very childish. Now to be fair this could be the intention, it could be depicting her as an innocent lonely young girl from the city. But I just couldn't stand her. I really enjoyed the crippled soldiers character and the guard in charge of protecting the hay. I also really liked the scenes where Alyosha interacted with other soldiers but scenes where there was awkward tension between him and Shura I couldn't stand. It really felt rushed and forced especially when they hide in the hay bail. It felt way too quick in a movie when Alyosha makes sure to slow every scene down to a halt so we know hes going to be late for a train.
The main interesting thing I found in this film was the differences between men and women in the film. Or at least that it was I saw it as, it could be the difference between two other things, perhaps something to do with classes or backgrounds but to me it seemed like a gender thing. Like when Alyosha reveals he only has one night to stay home the woman who is riding with him replies "how awful" while the man replies "that's lucky" or something like that. It kind of shows that the men are all more downtrodden in this war-ridden world than the women. That is not to say that the women had it easy because we are shown on multiple occasions that they did not. They had to pick up all the slack of the men who had to go put their lives on the line. Another example of the differences between men and women is shown in Pavlov's wife and father. His wife was disloyal to him and was very apathetic in receiving the gift, whereas his father was delighted for just a bar of soap and set out to do his best to give his son hope. The idea of waiting is important and in this film it really shows men as the patient ones. Even Alyosha's mother says a lines about she didn't wait for his father or something like that. That was just something that I found interesting.
Overall I really wasn't a fan of the movie. I liked the concept of the path of characters he meets and the difficulties he has to overcome. But I found it really irritating and I just couldn't get attached to this guy who kept making problems for himself. I get that it was sad and that the fact that he did it to himself makes it more tragic but I just really didn't care. It had a sort of bizarre thing where all the people that just cared for themselves survived and in some cases thrived, but the main character who is the one who stepped in to help all these people is in the end the one who suffers. This could be a metaphor for the soldiers that give their lives so everyone else can live on happily. Or it could be showing that when you do things for the community or the greater good (sort of like communism) you have to give up things for yourself. While this is not a blatant dig at communism it would definitely turn some people off on the idea. Overall this movie was well made, it had an interesting concept and it had some scenes I enjoyed but overall it was my least favorite film from this course and I left just being really annoyed overall.
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