Ballad of a Soldier (1959)

Memorable, crazy movie

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

I thought Ballad of a Soldier was definitely a must watch for a wide ranger of viewers. It offers a broad spectrum of genres including romance, historical, and war. I want to say, however, that when I say historical, you will not learn about the Second World War from this film. Instead, you learn of a different perspective on how the war affected different nations and cultures at the time. As an American studying American History for almost my entire life, it was interesting to see a vague intro to how the citizens of the Soviet Union reacted to the devastation caused by the war. Also, the ending really showed the viewer how important it was for soldiers during the war to see their parents, even if that means they only get to see them for a few minutes. Overall, I felt that Ballad of a Soldier is a must see for any cultural film fan.

The Ballad of a soldier is a Russian movie that revolves around World War 2 and is about a young couple who are madly in love. The main character named Vladimir Ivashov is very home sick and yearns for his wife. The soldier is very good and commits numerous acts that give him heroic status instead of having a medal he asks for 6 days to help his mother and fix his roof. On a train towards his mother he falls in love with a girl named Shura. On his way home he commits acts of kindness. Some of those include carrying a suitcase for a wounded soldier and he helps push out a jeep that is stuck in the mud. Wen the end of the movie happens Shura confesses that there is no fiancé only an aunt. The soldiers train is blown up and then Alyosha rafts across the river and then to a rural village. The soldier only gets to see his mother for a few seconds. We see his journey home and he eventually dies along with being remembered as a Russian soldier at the end of the movie.

I know it is a very grand statement to say that this is the greatest anti-war movie made so far. I have a good reason for that though. Every anti-war movie has showed the fighting and showed the killing of people. However, this mostly focuses on the physical faults of war rather than emotional faults. The excessive violence in other movies also numbs the audience to gore and violence. Ballad of a Soldier keeps the violence and bloodshed to a minimum. Instead, the movie focuses on the emotional impact of the war on the innocent civilians and soldiers outside of the battlefield. The chemistry between Alyosha and Shura is amazing. The simplicity of the plot is brilliant and allows exposure of real human interaction. The movie focused on one soldier rather than having a grand scale of characters and action. This way, we can take this one person as an example of the millions of lives similar to Aloysha's that were lost in the war. The subtlety and simplicity of this film is what makes it so great. I love it and it's a masterpiece. I rewatch it over and over again. Everyone should see it.

Grigori Chukhray's movie is still highly topical. It is one of the best anti-war films ever made. It reveals in a most outspoken way the human faces behind the bloodshed. It shows how war violence is not limited to the battlefield, but provokes also physical and mental havoc everywhere in the countries involved. People lose their homes, their possessions and even their country. People bleed also psychologically through broken or strained relationships and family ties. Women have to do a man's work at home. As a contrast to the satanic war machinery, Grigori Chukhray scripted a pure love encounter. But, it also didn't last very long. Ideologically, this movie is a perfect example of Marxist art: it has a positive hero, who is also a type, a representative of a particular class (a soldier, a 'Russian' soldier). 'Ballad of a Soldier' stands in sharp contrast to the actual avalanche of so-called blockbusters preaching an unacceptable and shameful gospel of violence. 'Ballad of a Soldier' in its way is also a blockbuster, but with 'big' sentiments, preaching love instead of hate, respect instead of inhumanity and family ties instead of random killings. 'Ballad of a Soldier' is a 'big' movie. A must see.