The Cranes Are Flying

It's exactly what you'd expect: tepid, artsy, and grayish.

Thanks to Mr. Kalatozov's direction and the excellent performance Tatyana Samoilova gives as the girl, one absorbs a tremendous feeling of sympathy from this film -- a feeling that has no awareness of geographical or political bounds.

A key post-war effort, both for its cinematic audacity and for its frank, moving depiction of families and lovers torn apart by violence.

Mikhail Kalatozov is a Soviet poet in every sense of the phrase: he’s a patriot, a champion of the proletariat, a cheerleader for the communist ideal, and a creator of some of the most beautiful images to play across Soviet screens.

What makes “The Cranes Are Flying” so unforgettable is the visual splendor of its cinematography. The fluid camera movement is simply put, astounding.

The Cranes Are Flying mingles a strong sense of national identity with universal human themes to tell a powerfully tragic love story against a World War Il background.

Expressively tragic, The Cranes are Flying is a beautifully projected tearjerker, ending with a compassionate moment of catharsis which also satisfies the socialist realism of the Soviet Union.

A significant Soviet film in that it featured recognizable humans rather than propagandist props.

We see glimpses of Boris after his deployment but Kalatozov saves the most disquieting glimpses of the war for the homefront where, while Veronika longs for the past, the harsh present sweeps forward in cold blood.