I have never liked war films. It's not necessarily the violence that bothers me; there are plenty of violent films that I count among my favourites, usually violence of an intimate and personal nature. War films, rather, serve as a reminder of the sanctioned murder and suffering that happens - is still happening - on such a bafflingly large scale. Ordinary people killing each other perhaps because of some ideological gulf or religious tension, or simply through fear of authority - because some detached, faceless higher-up told them to. These are lives, with all the texture and depth as yours or mine, thrown away almost carelessly like pawns in a game of chess. Like i'm sure most of us do, I find it deeply unsettling.
The Red and the White embodies that, the Russian revolution presented as a macabre tug of war between the two factions, either side temporarily gaining ground only to lose it again as more and more bodies fall by the wayside. It is senseless, there is no clear narrative or sense of purpose to be found here, only a slew of inconsequential deaths in a war that proves itself irrational by its very nature.
The Red and the White embodies that, the Russian revolution presented as a macabre tug of war between the two factions, either side temporarily gaining ground only to lose it again as more and more bodies fall by the wayside. It is senseless, there is no clear narrative or sense of purpose to be found here, only a slew of inconsequential deaths in a war that proves itself irrational by its very nature.
No comments: