"And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."
During World War II, a boy in Belarus decides to leave his home and join a Belarusian resistance force. Sitting between Nazi German and the USSR, Belarus is a fierce battleground. He'll grow up quickly as he faces the realities of war.
The first third of the movie feels like a coming of age tale - the main character, a boy of about 14 fights with his mother, plays on the beach and meets a girl. In these scenes, and in some that follow, some of the acting is poor or overwrought and some of the direction seems amateurish. But these scenes will be overshadowed by what's to come.
Based on true events, the movie will descend further and further down into Hell on Earth. It depicts the horrors of war not in the usual sense of bullets, tanks and the heat of battle. Rather, in the sense of soldiers rounding up an entire town, locking them in a barn and setting it on fire. Or the scene of a man begging for his life as he's being dowsed in gasoline. It's the kind of movie that's so brutal in its subject matter and so matter-of-fact in its depiction, that it's difficult to talk about.
I don't know when you'd be in the mood to witness atrocity but it's undeniable that its depiction here is sobering and extremely powerful.
8/10.
Total "Top 250" Movies Seen: 356.
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