Come and See

Bad luck lingered on me like hangnail today. Got up nice and early to head off to the post office to pick up my parcel (a new Wii controller). Someone supposedly tried to deliver it to our door, but apparently it was 'too large' so they gave up and took it to the post office. Bit miffed about having to make the extra journey, but my pissed-off level hit a new high when I opened the package. They sent completely the wrong item, I was stuck with a really dodgy looking PlayStation 3 controller instead... I don't even own a PS3!

'But hey-ho, lets just get on with life and head to work' said I. If I am brutally honest though, I really could not be bothered with work today. I was only put down for a 3 hour shift and the entire time I was walking in I was having gloomy thoughts. Walk in through the front door and I am met with wide eyes of disbelief from my boss at reception. 'Didn't you get my message' she asked? 'We don't really need you in today since it's so quiet.' I felt like screaming.

A last minute shift swap was hastily organized however for better or worse and I was stuck cleaning out paint pots and rollers for a fair while. I still have all this blue paint under my nails, it looks like I tickled a smurf with leperacy.

No matter how blue my hands are though, it was nothing compared to how blue Come and See made me feel. This was a Russian war movie about the real tragedies of war in their countryside with the most accurate portrayal of the Nazis I think has ever been put to film. The amount of extras was just astronomically huge, every big scene easily has more than a hundred people in full costume up close and personal with the camera, usually in extended takes which gave it a gritty realism. There seriously were no limits to where the camera could go and what it will show us, the film grabs you by the throat after the first explosion and it's harrowing and shocking nature just builds and builds until it's epic crescendo of a conclusion. 

Somebody on Icheckmovies very tidily summed up this film by saying 'It makes Apocalypse Now look like a date movie.' While I can't top that, I can certainly agree with it. Come and See is miles better than Apocalypse Now although it is a lot harder to watch, but if you can sit through the first 30 minutes you will experience a cinematic wonder.