Ballad of a Soldier

I really enjoyed "Ballad of a Soldier." It was different than the other war related movies we have seen in class so far. This was mainly due to the fact that the director didn't shove themes of socialist realism down our throats the whole time. I feel like this is why I liked this movie so much. The plot was a breath of fresh air as well. The actors portrayed in the film seemed very innocent with their intentions and did not have much of an edge to them. I liked the subtleness of this aspect and it made me genuinely invested in the characters. I was interested to find out how their stories were going to unfold. 

One feature of the film that stuck out to me was that the war was not the main focus in the story. However, the war revolved around the plot. This is different in comparison to a movie such as "Chapaev." I was a little surprised by this because the first few scenes depicted Alyosha fighting on the front lines. I figured the whole story would take place on the battle field and in the barracks. Nevertheless, I am happy it didn't. It is a nice change of pace to see a soldier out of his element  on leave and see how he reacts to civilian life. 

Another aspect of the film I thought was interesting was how people helped contribute to the war without being a soldier on the front lines. It was very common for women to take up masculine jobs during WWII because all of the men were off fighting in the war. One example of this is when Alyosha goes home to his village to see his mother. Unsurprisingly, there were no men in sight and all of the women were busy working in the fields. It was actually a bit eerie to see this. I can understand why the women swarmed Alyosha bombarding him with questions about their loved ones because God only knows if the men were alive and well or dead. 

In terms of propaganda, I didn't feel like this movie delivered as well as others, such as "Burnt by the Sun" or "Circus." I know that this was a war movie so obviously there is some propaganda simply through the Russian army being a main focus, but there wasn't anything that jumped out at me that made me think, wow, this is what Russian ideology is all about. I felt this film suggested more of a love story/entertainment theme. I enjoyed the watching the journey Alyosha and Shura had getting to know each other as they travelled together. There were times during the film where I laughed and others where I felt very sad for the unfortunate situation Alyosha was in. While it was apparent he had a life altering time meeting Shura trying to get home to see his mother, it also cost him precious time with the woman he loves most of all. This is the entertainment factor the movie had that made me want to keep watching. Overall, I really enjoyed it and hopefully we can watch more movies like this.