Come and See

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Come and See

Released Feb 6, 1987

2h 22m

Drama

War

Mystery & Thriller

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Popcornmeter

89%

Tomatometer

57 Reviews

96%

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5,000+ Ratings

The invasion of a village in Byelorussia by German forces sends young Florya (Aleksey Kravchenko) into the forest to join the weary Resistance fighters, against his family's wishes. There he meets a girl, Glasha (Olga Mironova), who accompanies him back to his village. On returning home, Florya finds his family and fellow peasants massacred. His continued survival amidst the brutal debris of war becomes increasingly nightmarish, a battle between despair and hope.

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Critics Consensus

As effectively anti-war as movies can be, Come and See is a harrowing odyssey through the worst that humanity is capable of, directed with bravura intensity by Elem Klimov.

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Mark Le Fanu

Sight & Sound

The movie is terrible and pitiable. Klimov manages, as I say, to convey the authentic relentlessness of nightmare.

Mar 15, 2023

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David Denby

New York Magazine/Vulture

The movie is a succession of brutally sincere "art" assaults, jammed together like the poorly articulated cars of an old freight train.

Mar 14, 2023

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Derek Malcolm

Guardian

This is filmmaking of enormous power and feeling even if the film's length mitigates against it.

Mar 14, 2023

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Tom Cassidy

Common Sense Media

This 1985 Soviet anti-war drama is one of the best movies ever made.

Apr 17, 2024

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Jeff Simon

Buffalo News

Come and See is as harrowing and horrifying a war film as I've ever seen. It may well be a masterpiece, in fact.

Mar 14, 2023

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Robert Trussell

Kansas City Star

Rare is the film that successfully blends intoxicating visual images with unrelentingly grim material, but Russian director Elem Klimov's phenomenal Come and See is such a movie.

Rated: 4/4

Mar 14, 2023

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Todd B

A complex opera of horror and violence, staged with a sense of a series of psychological extremes that take the mise en scene into the nether regions of terror. One of the reviewers here, ", Jacob B." writes that it's a shame that this was the directors only film... which is an unfortunate piece of completely erroneous info.. Elem Kkimov had a pretty well fleshed out, impressive career, with a body of work that's almost universally well regarded. COME AND SEE was his *last* film.. perhaps that got tangled up in translation? Anyhow--i don't view the film as a 5 star masterpiece, sometimes the German soldiers are rendered with a silly pantomime of villainy (a mistake often made IMHO in a high portion of wwII melodramas... the Germans are portrayed as well nigh brain damaged mountebanks.... streamers of spit dangling from their chins the only thing missing) but it's definitely a tour de force of brutal filmmaking, well communicating the steady diet of violence that constituted the daily bread of those subject to the war on the Eastern Front. . . ie WW2's Operation Barbarossa.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

04/07/25

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thiago s

Filme bacaninha, o roteiro é mais ou menos, as cenas são mais ou menos, mas a cena final do garoto morto pelos soldados é forte e impactante, a história é mais ou menos, o elenco é mais ou menos, e alguns ajudam a melhorar o filme, os personagens são fracos, e o filme deveria ter cenas bem melhores e relevantes, para ser bom.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

04/06/25

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Audience Member

Every time I watch this scary movie, I can't hold back the tears.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

04/05/25

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Audience Member

This is a heart wrenching film and might possibly be my favorite war film.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/12/25

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Jack S

Sad movie about the brutality of war

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/11/25

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O&R m

I have no f**king words. One of the greatest films of all time. War is hell.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/04/25

Full Review

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Elem Klimov

Director

Aleksey Kravchenko

Florya Gaishun

Olga Mironova

Glasha

Liubomiras Laucevicius

Kosach

Vladas Bagdonas

Rubezh

Evgeny Tilicheev

Gezhel

Jason Hall’s Five Favorite Military Films

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Synopsis

The invasion of a village in Byelorussia by German forces sends young Florya (Aleksey Kravchenko) into the forest to join the weary Resistance fighters, against his family's wishes. There he meets a girl, Glasha (Olga Mironova), who accompanies him back to his village. On returning home, Florya finds his family and fellow peasants massacred. His continued survival amidst the brutal debris of war becomes increasingly nightmarish, a battle between despair and hope.

Director: Elem Klimov
Screenwriter: Ales Adamovich, Elem Klimov
Distributor: International Film Exchange
Production Co: Mosfilm, Belarusfilm
Genre: Drama, War, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: Belarusian
Release Date (Theaters): Feb 6, 1987, Limited
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Feb 2, 2001
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 28, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA): $70.8K
Runtime: 2h 22m
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.66:1)

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