A certain sacred code is encrypted in the phrase "film about war", which works instantly when pronounced. Few of the Russian-speaking people will immediately recall films about other wars: the First World War or the war with Napoleon, the Anglo-Boer, or the war of the Yankees and the Confederates. The Great Patriotic War, which left an indelible mark not only on the fates of the participants, but also on the souls of subsequent generations, will be the first to come to minds for the majority.
Skillfully combined fiction with historical truth, the confrontation between good and evil, sympathy and empathy for those who found themselves in the funnel of military events definitely not of their own free will, or vice versa - precisely because of their own - are the main engines of the plots of films about the war. Films with large-scale hostilities, tanks and planes, explosions and gunfire are certainly spectacular, and the war in them is always "very real", but film stories about people through whose lives the war passed by ramming, are often no less expressive and respond more painfully in the soul, and hence the trace from them is much deeper.
Far from war
Stories about the fate of ordinary people living in "peaceful" territory, far from battles, are attracted precisely by the fact that they are psychologically closer to modern viewers who have not "sniffed gunpowder", to those who can only feel how it is to face the enemy and disaster in everyday, everyday life: between breakfast, lunch and dinner, work or study. Such films as "Casablanca" (Casablanca, 1942, directed by Michael Curtis), "The Cranes Are Flying" (directed by Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957), "Twenty Days Without War" (directed by Alexei German, 1976) are dedicated to the clash of war and life, love and death., "Malena" (Malena, directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, 2000), "Silence of the Sea" (Le silence de la mer, directed by Pierre Boutron, 2004).
Stolpersteine - The stumbling block
In Germany, since the beginning of the 90s of the last century, in all cities and towns it has become customary on the sidewalks near houses, from where people were taken and, like sacks of potatoes, they were loaded into cars and taken to concentration camps for slaughter, to mount brass plaques, slightly protruding to the surface with the names of repressed Jews, Gypsies, Germans, et cetera. These signs protrude only slightly to trip over them, but safely - without consequences. The Germans believe that light, scratching the subconscious, but permanent discomfort is necessary for memory. Permanent memory of innocent civilians who suffered innocent, of the Jewish question, which is raised every time a convenient enemy is urgently needed.
Films about the war, about that part of it, where death camps and everyday horror are shown are created with the same goals. Although they are extremely different in intensity of emotions and naturalism, the best of them, created over many years, are undoubtedly these - created by great directors - "Dead Season" (director Savva Kulish, 1968), "Death of the Gods" (La caduta degli dei, director Luchino Visconti, 1969), Remember Your Name (directed by Sergei Kolosov, 1974), Life is Beautiful (La vita è bella, directed by Roberto Benigni, 1997), Schindler's List (Schindler's List, directed by Steven Spielberg, 1993), The Pianist (directed by Roman Polanski, 2002), The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (directed by Mark Herman, 2008).
In war as in war
Death. Everyday, mundane, scary in its routine, to which in spite of everything it is impossible to get used to, is shown in many wonderful films, where the battlefield is always dotted with funnels, gray-brown mud and caked blood - the color of hostilities. Films in which the feeling of war is tangibly visible and unforgettable are Ivan's Childhood (directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, 1962), The Soldier's Father (directed by Rezo Chkheidze, 1964), Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha (directed by Vladimir Motyl, 1967), "Checking on the Roads" (directed by Aleksey German, 1971), "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" (directed by Stanislav Rostotsky, 1972), "They Fought for the Motherland" (directed by Sergei Bondarchuk, 1976), "Aty-Baty, Soldiers were Walking" (directed by Leonid Bykov, 1977), Come and See (directed by Elem Klimov, 1985), In August 1944 (directed by Mikhail Ptashuk, 2000), Brest Fortress (directed by Alexander Kott, 2010).
Such wonderful films as Gone with the Wind (directed by Victor Fleming, 1939), War and Peace (directed by Sergei Bondarchuk, 1967) will remind you of the fact that there were other wars - besides the Second World War. "The Law of War / Morant, nicknamed" The Tamer "(" Breaker "Morant, directed by Bruce Birsford, 1980)," The Long Engagement "(Un long dimanche de fiançailles, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2004)," War Horse "(War Horse, directed by Steven Spielberg, 2011).
