Zhivye i myortvye

51 years after the release of "THE ALIVE AND THE DEAD", I've finally watched that incredible masterpiece. The movie is as relevant now as it was back in 1964. The movie tells the story of a man, a good man, in the long, infinite, brutal, heroic year of 1941 - the first year of the darkest period in history. The director did an amazing job - the movie is visually astonishing, many of the frames could be, as they are, framed and pinned to a wall. The actors are some of USSR's best - each one does his role in the best possible way, truly amazing. Most of the actors playing soldiers in this movie are actual World War II veterans. In some scenes, the eyes tell more than words could ever tell. The dialogues are breathtaking and truthful. The movie presents the true horror of this war and the UNBEARABLE weight on the shoulders of the Red Army soldiers. They fought in rain, in snow, in mud, they went through ice and fire. They kept on fighting while being burned alive in tanks, airplanes, ships and trenches. They heroically fought for every hill, for every village, for every station, for every city - for every piece of their land occupied by the most ruthless enemy in human history. They fought the Germans while knowing that their wives and families are at great danger - maybe already tortured and dead or maybe also fighting on the fronts of this forsaken war. The movie perfectly represents that the chances to survive were so incredibly small that each man understood that every day, every minute could be the last. Still - they had hope, still they kept on fighting, still THEY WON THIS WAR. But in this masterpiece, the victory is still very far - this is only 1941.. the war had just begun. With no doubt - 10/10

Stolper did not take from the book to the screen a lot of Stalin-praising garbage and concentrated on the battle scenes and interactions between soldiers. Let's not forget that this was the movie that brought Papanov to national fame.

One thing that is disappointing is high degree politicizing, which was unavoidable in a 1963 Soviet movie. The second half of the book and the movie deals with how Sinzov lost his party id card and is fighting to get back the credibility and rank. Other then that the movie works.