SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

thinbeach Tarkovsky's first feature, the first film I've seen of his, and boy am I impressed! "Ivan's Childhood" tells the story of a 12 year old who tries to help with the war effort after his family are killed by Nazi's. Being headstrong (reminds me of a General in the making), and running away whenever education programs are imposed upon him, in the company of a few soldiers he hunkers down in a stony shelter, which becomes the home base of the film. It is said he works as a spy to retrieve information from behind enemy lines, using his smaller frame to more successfully navigate the rivers and marshes unsighted, though the film shows this only at the beginning and end. We don't really see the enemy in this film - flares often fly through the backgrounds of shots, and explosions and gunshots are heard and seen - but mostly the battlefront takes a backseat, instead giving us a unique personal tale somewhat sheltered from the typical horrors. Not to say this film is without horrors - isolation, death, shattered landscapes and unpleasantness are all inescapable - only that fighting is not the central focus. The question of Ivan's fate is posed early on, and is enough mystery to keep us engaged. As war movies with a heavy focus on battles and tactics are quite common, I particularly appreciated this unique, personal, more impressionistic, perspective. It allows Tarkovsky to delve into psychological aspects, communicated through whimsical dream sequences, providing a welcome contrast to the grim moodiness of war, and reminding us of the more idyllic life a boy his age should be living. He uses the enclosed spaces to full effect with wonderful shadowy lighting, and captures the murky waterscape scenery with the eye of a master painter. This is some of the finest composition and cinematography I have ever seen.There are a few minor deterrents. It likely would have had even more impact had they shown Ivan's life as a spy. Occasionally the shaky POV shots don't work. The soundtrack for much of the film is sparse, which is not an issue - it perfectly suits the stark emptiness, and the occasional use of diegetic music from a phonograph to break the silence only enhances the silence in a more tragic way - but occasionally sparks of non-diegetic music aim for sudden drama in a way that momentarily detaches you.

Leofwine_draca IVAN'S CHILDHOOD is the third film I've seen from acclaimed Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, and the third I haven't liked. This was his first film, a black and white WW2 picture following the misadventures of a young boy with a burning hatred of the Nazis who ends up joining a group of Russian partisans to fight against them.The subject matter is engaging and there are some dark and nihilistic moments here, but for the most part IVAN'S CHILDHOOD is an arty bore. It's told in an annoyingly non-linear fashion with plenty of imagery but little in the way of concrete narrative. Much of it consists of soldiers sitting in a room talking which doesn't make for a very gripping experience, and I found the whole thing overrated and patience-testing.

lasttimeisaw Tarkovsky's legitimate first feature film, IVAN'S CHILDHOOD walked off with the Golden Lion in Venice, an honor shared with Valerio Zurlini's FAMILY PORTRAIT (1962). At the age of 30, Tarkovsky extraordinarily implements his stupefying aesthetic tack to the hilt, the film can sweep any new audience off their feet tout court, and sends out a biting anti-war message with soul- pulverizing poignancy.WWII, Eastern front, our hero is a 12-year-old scrawny Russian boy Ivan (Burlyaev), who is left bereft and hell-bent in his reconnaissance vocation urged by an inexorable impulse of avenging, the front-line is not a place for child, Colonel Gryaznov (Grinko) intends to send him to a military school (and adopt him when the war is over), but Ivan is already a fearless soldier in defiance of his gaunt figure, after having prematurely experienced a baptism of fire out of man-made atrocity, which entirely traumatizes his child-like innocence, there is no propaganda whitewashing in his characterization, he is brusque to his senior comrades, reckless in his intent to stay on, and holds a skeptical world-view jarringly incommensurate with his age. That is what war can afflict an innocent child, changes him into an anomaly. Ivan is pestered by dreams of his past, the ephemeral peaceful time with his mother (Tarkovsky's wife Irina) and his younger sister, both perished along with his father. Mesmerizing shots and distinct compositions bombard audience in glut: a slam-bang swooping take strafing not far off his mother; the diagonal angle is scintillatingly deployed to eviscerate the shambolic and dilapidated state of affairs; a striking framing gimmick magnificently transpires when Ivan and his mother gaping into a well, and the camera looks towards them from under, which generates an ineffably magical vision contends to be the tenderest moment in this war-torn living hell. Also unforgettable is the camera-work's sublime attribute of foregrounding its close-ups and often pensive portraiture, which plays up the supreme chiaroscuro, second to none in its expressiveness and legerdemain, like the haunting imagery of the marshland during the last mission of Ivan and his companions, the young Lieutenant Galtsev (Zharikov) and Captain Kholin (Zubkov). Tarkovsky doesn't even for once, avail himself of point-blank combat - the modus operandi of warfare movies to grant a direct outlook of thrill and terror, because in his insightful and humanistic philosophy, a more horrifying and excruciating scourge is the pervading trepidation hovering around before the blood-letting, it gnaws under one's skin but downright ineradicable, and progressively it becomes inimical to the soundness of mind. The plot is being expectedly downplayed in favor of its atmospheric richness. The sub-plot digression into Kholin's imprudent flirtation with a young army nurse Marsha (Malyavia) conveys a faint discomfiture of carpe diem expedient, a knock-on aftermath under such extreme circumstances. Ivan never reaches his adulthood, all he has is a stunted childhood that he could only embrace during his slumbers, Burlyaev remarkably liberates Ivan's unceremonious singularity with both acerbity and compassion, and, it goes without saying, everyone looks more stylishly stark under Tarkovsky's exquisite mise-en-scène. A ground-breaking feature debut, IVAN'S CHILDHOOD wrestles gallantly with its unsettling subject and takes the risk to corroborate a somewhat inaccessible ideology in contrast with most patriotic offerings of its era, after all, what can a new viewer say after stumbling upon this time-tested masterwork? Just to be dazed and amazed!

Pavan Bhat If one were to break down a life span of a human into distinct phases, childhood would certainly be one of the most prominent phases of one's life. Andrei Tarkovsky has conveyed exactly the same message through his first feature, Ivan's Childhood. This is a beautiful rendition of the protagonist Ivan's childhood, a childhood that cannot be possibly recaptured in all its glory. The story has a non-linear plot and has a surreal and almost dreamlike representation of Ivan's memories and experiences. The traumatic experiences, especially those memories of Ivan's parents and sister murdered by German soldiers have a strong bearing on Ivan's mind, as he is fueled by the desire to take revenge against his perpetrators. The traumatic experiences have such a strong impression on his mind, that he no longer fears the strong possibility of death. He volunteers as a spy for the Russian Army, determined to find the light of the day against the injustices he has faced. Despite much hesitation by the generals at the Russian HQ against his enrollment initially, he manages to persuade the head-honchos at the Russian HQ to finally accept his services as a spy. Every frame in this film tries to weave a story. Tarkovsky's realist approach in terms of portrayal of childhood trauma is evident from his shot-taking. The realist approach juxtaposed with dream sequences and surreal representations of longing are the unique features of this film. Ivan, who is now on the forefront of the Russian platoon, on its mission to vanquish the German Army, finds himself of great help to the Russians due to his small size and agility. The vast barren landscapes and the war-torn areas portrayed in the film are nothing but an overt externalization of the people's memories and trauma in general, and Ivan's memories and trauma in specific. One of the most famous shots of the film is where Ivan is seen in the frame all alone with sharp spikes left behind after a war scene, all pointing towards Ivan, almost as if to indicate that the mind has entangled the poor boy and is trying to consume Ivan in whole. The ramshackle state of Ivan's mind has been beautifully externalized by swampy marshes portrayed in the film. The most interesting aspects of the film though are the initial and final dream sequences. The initial dream sequence shows how the free spirit of mind (in this case, Ivan's mind) can turn into his own adversary, by falsely implanting a happy thought that he might have shared with his mother. But the truth be told, the mind does not comprehend it to be a reality anymore, thereby taking evasive shape as a 'nightmare'. The never-ending possibility of the outcome of memories projected by the mind are portrayed by the long pine tree shown at the beginning of the film as the crane goes up to quite a substantial height to finally reveal the already tiny stature of Ivan. The final dream sequence, however, is on a contemplative note, where Ivan is seen running behind a small girl. It is probably a deliberate ploy adopted by Andrei Tarkovsky as it has the potential to convey many things at the same time. Longing, the desire to recollect one's lost childhood, lost fragments of a mind, a man chasing after his dreams or simply his desires. What is heart-wrenching though is the fact that Ivan dies without ever realizing or experiencing any of life's gifts. Also noteworthy is the inclusion of two other distinct dream sequences which refer to fragments of Ivan's memories, which Ivan particularly yearns for. Tarkovsky's obsession with incessant portrayal of nature is pretty evident, with focus predominantly on the various nuances of nature. Conscious decisions to use different faces on nature to represent different forms of human emotions is the forte of this masterpiece, which puts it in the same league as some of his later works, like Stalker and some of Bergman's and Kurosawa's films. Tarkovsky's portrayal of human emotions has defined a new style of film making, with many filmmakers like Akira Kurosawa and Ingmar Bergman acknowledging his style of contemplative film making. Persistent images of childhood resonate with the need or desire to familiarize with the deepest and darkest recesses of the mind. Hence, the images in this particular film are totally reminiscent of the hidden chambers of the various aspects of the mind which accentuate the need to empathize or sympathize with certain people or their lives' happenings.