Ivan's Childhood

Sorrowful masterpiece.

Ivan's Childhood (1962) is a film by Andrei Tarkovsky that received international acclaim and has many positive reviews: Cinematography Some say the cinematography is gorgeous and dream-like, with a hard-edged realism. The film's use of landscapes is Expressionistic, and the birch forest scenes are especially striking. Music The haunting music score contributes to the film's mood. Story The film's story is thought-provoking and wrenching, with memorable scenes and images. It tells the story of a Soviet orphan who befriends three officers while working as a scout behind enemy lines during World War II. Themes The film features many of Tarkovsky's characteristic themes, even though it was early in his career. Impact on Tarkovsky The film helped Tarkovsky articulate ideas that he would later develop in his book Sculpting in Time. International acclaim The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, which gave Tarkovsky international visibility. Reception The film received a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and Ingmar Bergman called it a miracle.

La guerra es la guerra. Andréi propone una historia bélica, dolorosa, diferente, una realidad contundente que apunta a la introversión de Iván, sus necesidades, carencias, indiferencias, anhelos y deseos más profundos. Un niño al que la guerra le arrebató a su familia, le quitó su infancia, el miedo, todo. Forzado a dejar su inocencia, Iván, con sed de venganza busca ser útil al ejército soviético, no conoce más allá de la violencia y vive inmerso en la pérdida y la crudeza del conflicto. El carácter de Iván, sus sueños, su forma de pensar y de ver la realidad, nada lejos de una pesadilla. Constantemente expuesto a situaciones de alto riesgo, rodeado de un círculo que intenta preservar su puericia que ha sido manchada por la guerra, impidiendo se pueda hacer más. Finalmente una vida inocente que se pierde en la maldad del hombre y me genera un interrogante ¿Qué culpa tiene? Andréi deja una muestra de su inteligencia en una composición que indaga en la tensión, un ritmo que sella una forma, que emite códigos precisos, Tarkovski deja la marca de su esencia, moldea el tiempo y lo ajusta, sin dejar de un lado el sentido propio de la historia.

Poetic masterpiece. Absolutely a must seen movie

This film was quite good 👍🏼

A beautifully filmed masterpiece with stunning cinematography and a great story with powerful performances, make this a wonderful work to behold. The debut film from Andrei Tarkovsky is a real gem and was a true moment of arrival for Tarkovsky in the world of cinema. He would go on to make many masterpieces that are towering works of art! This a simple story of childhood in wartime, is deeply moving and powerful. It's so universal in it's telling of the human condition and specifically how war ravages everyone and the devastating impacts on children.

Tarkovsky's first feature film sidesteps the active, 'hot' parts of warfare to emphasize the chilling moments of quiet between the bullets when the mind starts to wander. The director implements the dreamlike atmosphere that would become his most prominent trademark in later years to present a jagged and fractured narrative in emulation of his protagonist's psyche, caught between the happy memories of his earlier years and the cruel vengeances that he now doggedly seeks as a front-line scout; in the warmer years of the Khrushchev Thaw, Ivan is now a victim of a larger conflict fighting with venom as his fuel, rather than a dogged youth who overcomes adversity through the hot-blooded beating heart of communism in his chest. Devastating and tragic without being in the least bit superficially violent, Ivan's Childhood is simultaneously dirty and beautifully shot even though it lacks anything in the way of grand tracking shots, with Tarkovsky's cinematography conveying an almost alien nature to the landscape in his efforts to display a world of conflict that molds and reshapes the innocent mind into something far more warped and irredeemable. One of the most accomplished feature directorial debuts of all time, with elements that would continued to be refined in Tarkovsky's later masterpieces. (4/5)

My second favorite film of all time, and I'm a 52-year-old movie junkie.

Other than Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, it's difficult to think of a more accomplished directorial debut than Andrei Tarkovsky's Ivan's Childhood. Set on the Russian front during World War 2 as the German army advances, a young Russian boy seeks revenge for the killing of his family by conducting reconnaissance work for the Russian army. Other than a handful of POV shots that feel out of place, Tarkovsky shows his mastery of composition with a steady stream of beautifully framed shots of the theater of war mixed with sometimes surreal flashbacks of Ivan's childhood. It's a beautiful film that foreshadowed the greatness of what was to come from Tarkovsky.

Andrei Tarkovsky's feature directorial debut is very straightforward and lightweight in comparison to his later work. However, this World War II drama is brutal and haunting in its depiction of the casualties of the war, and rewarding and engrossing in its depiction of human relationships, and it features some of the distinctive directorial traits that would define his career in the years to come, like beautiful cinematography, ambitious storytelling, poetic visuals, cruel and dark atmosphere, and a deep exploration of humanity and religious beliefs.