Regarding war, many times we are talking about a kind of heroism, such as Dong Cunrui who blew up the bunker, and many commissioners, spies, etc. who did not even have a name left, of course, war will mercilessly involve children in it, such as the cattle herding baby Wang Erxiao, such as the small soldier Zhang Ga in film and television works, but for war, what kind of world do children see in their eyes?
In the work "Ivan's Childhood" by the former Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky, he tries to look at war from the eyes of an underage child. The film was produced by the Moscow Film Studio in 1962 and won the Golden Lion at that year's Venice Film Festival.
As one of the greatest directors in the history of Soviet cinema, Andrey Tarkovsky, Ivan's Childhood is also his debut work, but this does not mean that the film is flawed in plot or approach, on the contrary, the film still has many references even today.
<h1>1. War is a matter for adults and has nothing to do with children</h1>
The protagonist of the film, 12-year-old Ivan, is a small scout who, with his small stature, provided a lot of help to the Soviet army in World War II.
After completing a difficult task, his superiors asked him to go to a military school instead of staying in the army. Ivan resisted, fled, cried, and never wanted to go to military school, but wanted to stay in the army and continue to investigate the enemy situation for the Soviet army.
Why would a 12-year-old be so enthusiastic about war?
revenge.
The desire for revenge is ageless.
Ivan's mother and sister both died tragically at the hands of fascists, and the scene of his mother falling by the well has never been removed from his mind. The war shattered the originally peaceful life of Ivan's family, and Ivan's biggest thought was to avenge his mother and sister.
The lieutenant once said to Ivan, "You should go to military school, war is not a child's business." ”
Yes, children should be carefree and innocent, and war can never hurt innocent children. But their father was dragged into battle, nine dead, their mother was at home, killed by the enemy, even if it was a child who survived by chance, how could he turn a deaf ear to these things that happened next to him?
On the opposite side of the anti-fascist war, children living in Germany, under the depiction of the Australian writer Max Susak's "Book Thief", the children of fascist countries did not have a good life. The children seemed to be longing for war, but they didn't know what war meant. Soon after, Germany was bombed, and the home of Lissell's adoptive parents in Book Thief was reduced to rubble.
Back in "Ivan's Childhood", Ivan is still working as a little scout, and in another operation, the lieutenants never wait for Ivan to return dirty, until the end of the war, and everyone shouts "Victory!" Victory! In the German prison, Ivan's profile was seen, which read: Hanged.
It is true that war is a matter for adults, but children also have to bear the consequences.
<h1>2. War struggles between reality and dreams</h1>
The film is based on F. Bogomolov's Ivan, and director Andrei Tarkovsky decided to include Ivan's dream in the film.
It is precisely this dream that has become the finishing touch of the movie.
In the film Ivan's Childhood, Ivan's dream is not coherent, but broken and abstract, with fragments scattered throughout the film in the form of interludes to advance the plot.
In the dream, Ivan and his mother pick apples, dig well water, listen to the cuckoos... Hide-and-seek, run, play on the beach with your sister... Obviously it was in the spring, but the war gave Ivan a cold blow.
And every time he dreamed of his mother and sister, Ivan was full of tears, but his determination to take revenge became more and more firm, which was also his repeated run out of the military academy, returning to the army to become a scout, or even join the guerrillas.
For Ivan, dreaming is blissful, because only in dreams can the faces of mother and sister be exceptionally clear, as if they were still alive, can talk, can play, can be spoiled. For this 12-year-old teenager, dreaming is cruel, because the beauty of each dream makes him have to face this real world after waking up, and the feelings in the dream are non-existent, only the thought of revenge is particularly clear.
Andrey Tarkovsky is also using Ivan's dream, coupled with the back and forth of the camera, to create a tragic and eerie atmosphere, in contrast, highlighting the great impact of war on children, the original little angel, due to the seed of hatred in his heart, the eyes are no longer clear, but become cold.
Children are always victims of war, whether it is for the victorious side or the loser.
<h1>3. Start the war first from the bottom of the desperate well</h1>
At the beginning of the film, it is Ivan's dream, at the well, Ivan and his mother stare at the clear well water, looking at the dazzling stars in the well, and the perspective of the upward shooting is the peaceful and happy face of the mother and son.
When Ivan went down to play in the well, his mother standing at the edge of the well was shot by the Germans, and Ivan in the well witnessed all this, and the bucket fell from above and smashed into the deep well. Ivan's happy life was thus broken.
It is worth mentioning that when entering Ivan's dream, from Ivan's hand lying on the bed, combined with the sound of water droplets in the room, magnified to Ivan's fingertips, the camera has turned to the dream, the wet Ivan and the stunned face that witnessed his mother's killing.
Later, ivan was playing a game of killing enemies in the room, the tense background music was pierced through the phonograph in the room, and ivan's flashlight was illuminated by his mother, who was already in tears with a dagger. These are pretty classic clips in the film. The combination of virtual and real, the transformation of reality and dreams, seamless connection, not feeling stiff.
Running on the beach, silent dialogue on the truck, are a long shot, and the description of the birch forest reflected in the swamp mirror for more than forty seconds later, is stained with a layer of tragedy and heaviness.
It is often said that the film work of the Soviet period can be called textbook, and then when you watch "Battleship Potemkin", especially in the two scenes of the Odessa Ladder Massacre and the shelling of the Odessa Theater, it is deeply felt. For the children and war involved in "Ivan's Childhood", it is even more important to find a balance between reality and dreams, emphasizing that war brings indelible scars to children - war is always a child's business.