Movie Analysis: Ballad of a Soldier

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Movie Analysis: Ballad of a Soldier

Introduction

“Ballad of a Soldier” depicts the story of a soldier who demonstrated great courage and bravery in the act of war. Political conditions of USSR were portrayed by the director in the movie because of Nazi invasion in the Second World War. The theme of the movie was based in the actual suffering of humanity at the time of war. The life of soldiers and the hardship of war are originally depicted in the movie which grasps the viewer attention and make it feel like they are involved in the action. The movie also has a softer side which is noticeable by a truthful relation between a soldier and a girl he met on his way home. The story also involves maternal love, when the soldier asks for a leave as a reward for his action in the war, to meet his long awaited mother. Although, the movie is abundantly based on the horrors of war, but there is a certain touch of humanity and love. Love is depicted in various forms, in the movie. The soldier's love for his motherland as a patriot, then falling in love with a beautiful young girl as an immature lover and then finally the love of mother and child, as a son. “Ballad of a Soldier”, is undoubtedly a classic of Russian cinema and silvers screen. In the following sections, we will consider various aspects of the movie, as this paper is devoted to its analyses.

About the Movie

The film stands out among the dull, lengthy, and full of artificial pathos of the Soviet war films of that period. It is the most popular and most spectacular work of the Soviet cinema of the late 50's and early 60s. Its critical asset is not a lot of action or rich in heroic deeds of war, "the heroic Soviet people", but the power of a true lyrical story, yet free from the false and conventional symbolism (Pickard, 1980). The dominant image is impressed by the simplicity and a primary characteristic of magnificent art. Perhaps this is what determined the success of the movie in the USSR and abroad. The film received a number of awards, and in the Soviet Union alone, it was experienced by more than 30 million spectators. The film is set in the 1942 year, but the characters wear epaulets on their uniforms, which the Soviet Army were introduced only a year later (in 1943). It was a focused director, Grigoriy Chukhray, who foresees the film screenings in Europe, and did not want to stir the well-established notions of Soviet soldiers-liberators in uniforms with epaulettes. The director Grigori Chukhrai made a magnificent parable of what must assume the cost of 30 million Soviet lives caused by the Nazi invasion during WWII. It does so by focusing on the simple story of a Russian soldier of 19 years. Chukhrai the place in full post-Stalinism, when there was a small opening of ...