ThiefHott Too much of everything

Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Kirpianuscus the novel by Sholokhov. the performance of Bondarchuk. the wise script. the close-up. and the life of a man who seems be only new Job. a film who impress not only for the drama but for its profound poetry of small details. a confession. and the hope. the war's traces. and the future as new beginning. it is part of a long chain who defines the Soviet cinema as artistic treasure. it is, in same measure, fruit of a political situation. but, more important, it is a fine work. because it reflects human feelings, duties and pain out of ideological circle. because it is an universal story. and one of beautiful examples of high cinema. that could be all. not a great show but useful exercise about the force of art. and, sure, for the Eastern public, a travel in history, against wars, crisis, disasters. and cases of survive.

Joe M Destiny of a Man is an extremely genuine exploration of a Russian soldier's experience during the "Great Patriotic War," that strips him of everything he loves. Director Sergei Bondarchuk portrays a character whose struggles, sadness, and heroism feel astonishingly real. His acting brings audiences through a series of scenarios that demonstrate the pain and suffering caused by the conflict at home and on the front.The film is a continuation of the departure in the late 1950s from the Stalin Era's socialist realism into the postwar period of actual realism, in which characters act based on believable motives whether or not they follow the party line. Sokolov survives innumerable atrocities, bravely facing his Nazi tormentors, not for Mother Russia, but for the love of his family. In fact, the state plays very little role in the film at all, and it is very much the story of its protagonist, a story that is emotionally relevant in a very universal way.The film is honest and humble, but proceeds with a powerful style that underscores its raw humanity. It is marked by a motif of elevation, with Sokolov's emotions manifested in the highs and lows of shots and locations throughout his ordeal. He meets his wife while building a house, standing high above the ground. In scenes of suffering, including one in which he must lie on the ground in a Nazi detention camp, he is low to the ground, looking up at the imagined members of the family he so wishes to see. Likewise he ascends through his village to be reunited with his family, he reaches the depths of despair as he descends into the crater where his house stood. In the end, the message is a positive one. Much like Veronika in the earlier film The Cranes are Flying, Sokolov begins to rebuild his life around an adopted son who has also lost everything in the war. Troubles continue to plague the man and his country, but he is not alone, a simple message that matches the humanity woven throughout the film.

jhrclbpmar The work is absolutely stunning visually, at times radical in its framing. It is perfectly understandable that since the film was made only 5 years after Stalin's death the political strictures under which it was made forced the director to be careful to avoid depicting the persecution suffered by returning Soviet POW's under his rule, but by focusing on the suffering they, and most particularly the protagonist, experienced as prisoners in German work camps and the steadfast and heroic endurance they maintained in the face of cruelty and hardship he is completely successful in politically rehabilitating them as patriots, both for their contemporaries and for Soviet posterity. A beautiful and at times quite moving film. Highly recommended.

sh_bronstein This movie is very special in many ways. It is a good movie in cinematic terms because it is aesthetically very impressive and has a good plot structure. On the other hand, this film touches subjects that were taboo in the Soviet Union of the time, and bravely shows parts of the history of the war that had not been part of public discourse at the time. It is also unusual because many Soviet films about WWII ended with an upbeat note, unlike this one."Fate of a Man", as the title of the film translates, is a movie about a Soviet man (Sokolov) who experiences many of the horrors of the war against the Soviet Union. The movie tells his story in a flashback, showing how he is very broken after the war and what led to this. He had lost his family in the war, and had fought in it, he witnessed how his Jewish comrades were singled out and killed, and then he was taken to Germany to do forced labor. There, he suffered all sorts of abuse and barely survived. After the war ends, he goes back home, distressed and unable to find comfort for his emotional and physical pain. The film is very subtle in its depiction of the horrors of war, even though it does not white-wash what happened. As it was the first Soviet film to touch the subject of slave labor during the war, and of the murder of the Soviet Jews, it does this carefully, emphasizing the humanity of the victims of these cruel crimes without focusing on the gore. Together with "The Cranes are Flying" and "Ivan's Childhood" this is one of the first Soviet films about WWII that do not have a happy "we won"-type of ending. These three films were a form of dealing with the suppressed pain of Soviet citizens, after having lost one quarter of their population (27mio.) through the brutal attack by the Nazis. This movie is very impressive and very touching as well. I highly recommend it.