Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Matthew Luke Brady Ivan's Childhood (Ivanovo Detstvo) is everything that I love about cinema. The cinematography, the direction, the unique transmissions and the atmosphere are what makes this war film like no other. I would describe this as a sinister fairy tale with a sense of poetry. What makes this even more impressive is that this is Andrei Tarkovsky first major film and we already got our first taste of Tarkovsky haunting vision.Nikolai Burlyayev is one of the best child actors I've ever seen in a movie. He completely blew me away in this, as he is the one that delivered all the hard hitting emotions that happens around him. It's pretty heartbreaking to witness shell shock from a young boy.This is definitely worth seeing. It's absolutely unmissable.

t-viktor212 I read the plot synopsis, and thought - this will be a good Tarkovskij WWII movie! - remembering Andrei Rublev's Tartars attack scene.Then I watched it, and realised that I saw a movie about war without seeing war. There's a lot of the post-war destruction, that was very well shot as well, but no war action at all, if we don't consider the opening and near-the-ending sneaking around. The movie focuses of course on a child soldier, that is angry at Germans whom supposedly destroyed his family, and how he grows up, though his fate is tragic. This movie enlights on an aspect we don't really see of war in war movies, from a perspective and in a setting we don't really see often, and does it outstandingly.Yet I've put the lowest rating I gave to a Tarkovskij film. That's because it doesn't have that sort of thing other reviewers call "Poetry" Other Tarkovskij films have: even if I could enjoy this better than Nostalghia or Sacrifice, those film had much more messages to tell. But, still, I consider "outstanding" all the films I rate over 8.

Anthony Iessi Just at this very moment, that classic Jim Croce song starts playing in my head as I recall my screening of "Ivan's Childhood". Why is it that Tarkovsky, in nearly all of his films, has a wistfulness of the past, in a way that fogs his narratives so uniquely? After seeing "Mirror", I came to the conclusion that Tarkovsky is a cerebral artist, and much less of an actual filmmaker. For in that film, he used memories that nearly disjointed the entire piece, and eliminated the aspect of time and structure of narrative features. I thought of it, kind of like an Eisenstein montage of the recorded memory. So sitting down to "Ivan's Childhood", I fully expected it to be the same, as most filmmakers of his ilk don't stray from their artistic visions. What a surprise it was to know that the film displayed the best of Tarkovsky's creative vision, under the guise of what seemed to be a classic war picture. Ivan is such a wonderful character. He's a brave little boy, fighting for Russia in the midst of the worst times of WWII. The Nazi's were on the warpath, and everyone had to do their part in fighting to protect themselves from the ongoing threat of fascism. We know how hard Ivan can work to support his military, but he really doesn't want to be there. He'd rather go to sleep and dream of his mother, and the place of his childhood. We see visions of him and his mother, staring down upon a wishing well, or frolicking on a sunny beach. It's that longing sense of innocence and ignorance to the problems of the world. You might say that that's what all Europeans and Russians wished they could escape to during the atrocities of WWII. When it is revealed that his parents were taken away from him, thanks to the evils of the Nazi army, it is clear that this is war he has to fight, regardless of how badly he never wanted to be apart of it. WWII has sucked him in. There is no better understanding of this then the opening scene and long take of him emerging himself into a murky lake as he swims to his military base. The river overtakes him completely, as the main titles appear on screen. Tarkovsky is clearly trying to say something here. He's saying that there is no escape from war, and it forces you deep into the grimy depths of it. Even in the many scenes where he stays in the underground room, it seems even more apparent that he's trapped. Foreboding is the writings of German prisoners on the wall that warn of eventual death.The other characters of the film seem to be just as trapped as poor Ivan. For example, we see another Russian in the army, Captain Kholin, who romances a young Russian army nurse, during an assignment in the woods. The way he lifts her off of the ground and kisses her passionately as his legs splay over a short ditch in the ground seems like a silent cry for help. Even the most ardent of soldiers are desperate to escape this terror of a war. For just a fleeting moment, he wanted someone to fall in love with. When tensions are this high, do you blame him? Wouldn't you rather hold on to a beautiful woman, tight, instead of fighting in a world war? The ending of the picture is quite interesting, and many have analyzed its significance. Some have said that it is a flashback, but I have a different take on it. In retrospect, I thought of this final scene as Ivan making it to heaven, which consists of the happy times of his past. There is just something so touching about the final scene, that despite knowing that Ivan has been killed during war, he must have reached the place of his childhood in the end. He always found comfort in remembering the good times of his youth, and perhaps, let's say, he was sent back there to relive those days forever. The shot of the dead tree on the beach might just prove my point. The dead tree might be a symbol of passing on to the other side, in the midst of all the happiness that we see in the final scene. I genuinely feel, for certain, that Ivan went to heaven, and his memories are heaven to him. "Ivan's Childhood" is a sad story, but an excellent film by Tarkovsky, as he uses his exceptional talent of memories to convey loss and rejuvenation. There's a spirit to a Tarkovsky movie, despite having such a grim exterior. His movies are about life and death, and how we all must cope about our balancing act between the two. Sometimes, all we have is our past to help comfort us about our present.

TheLittleSongbird And not just as a feature film debut, but Ivan's Childhood is a truly great film in its own right, and perhaps the most accessible of Tarkovsky's films(being his shortest and briskest). Tarkovsky is not at his absolute best here in the sense that his style was still settling and he went on to even better things(Andrei Rublev gets my vote as the greatest Soviet film ever made). This may sound like a knock but it isn't, even when Tarkovsky is not at his finest he is much better than most other directors when not at their best and Ivan's Childhood is still beautifully directed, up there with one of the better feature film directorial debuts.Tarkovsky's films are among the most visually beautiful I've ever seen and Ivan's Childhood is not an exception. The cinematography from Vadim Yusov is gorgeous and evokes chills, there is a dream-like quality to it but also a hard-edged realism. The use of landscapes is wonderfully Expressionistic, making the real-life sequences even more hard-hitting. The music score is haunting and the film is written in a thought-provoking way that wrenches the gut and breaks the heart. It isn't a Tarkovsky film without memorable scenes and images and Ivan's Childhood has those certainly, the dream sequences make the film(i.e. Ivan and his sister on the apple cart in the rain) but standing out too are the magical birch forest scene, the emotionally harrowing scene in the dark house and especially one of the most heart-breakingly powerful endings ever. What's remarkable is that while the story sounds simple, there are several characteristic Tarkovsky themes for so early on his career and when it comes to mood Ivan's Childhood works amazingly.Furthermore the story of Ivan's Childhood is incredibly touching, the childhood scenes are the epitome of innocence in a heartfelt, sometimes entertaining and charming way and in complete contrast(without feeling like two different films) the effect of the war and combat is both grotesque and poetic. The characters are interesting and vibrantly portrayed, although Masha is a little one-note for my tastes, Ivan is a compellingly real character who is easy to identify with from the get go. The acting is very good, outstanding in fact in the case of Nikolai(Kolya) Burlylaev who gives one of the best child performances I've ever seen on film. Overall, for a directorial/feature film debut Ivan's Childhood is incredible and as an overall film it's near-masterpiece quality. 9/10 Bethany Cox