Ballad of a Soldier (1959)
Directed by Grigoriy Chukhray

Film Review

The intolerable heartache of war has never been more palpably rendered that in Grigori Chukhrai's Ballad of a Soldier, one of a series of films made in the Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin that reflected on the human cost of WWII.  In a similar vein to Mikhail Kalatozov's earlier The Cranes are Flying (1957), the film benefited from a relaxation of censorship that accompanied the all too brief Khrushchev Thaw and shows, with heartrending poignancy, how lives are disfigured and destroyed by war.  After long decades in which Soviet cinema was rigidly controlled by the state and consisted almost entirely of pro-Communist propaganda, audiences could at last enjoy authentic slices of life that reflected how they themselves felt. 

Chukhrai's film was phenomenally successful, attracting an audience of over 30 million in the Soviet Union and winning its director that most prestigious of Soviet honours, the Lenin Prize.  Ballad of a Soldier was just as rapturously received when it was seen in the West, winning not only the Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 1960 but also the 1961 BAFTA for Best Film.  This may be Chukhrai's best-known film but it was not his first.  He had previously directed another notable wartime drama, The Forty-first (1956), which had also won him a prize at Cannes.  A Soviet war veteran who had served with distinction in WWII, Chukhrai made good use of his firsthand experience of military life in many of his films, and this accounts not only for their striking realism but also their intense humanity.  Chukhrai presumably lost many close friends through the war and Ballad of a Soldier impresses as a deeply felt elegiac tribute to the fallen he had known.

Not only is Ballad of a Soldier a flawlessly executed piece of cinema, photographed and edited with breathtaking artistry, it is also a profoundly moving reflection on the tragedy of war that is absolutely drenched in genuine human feeling.  Instead of the forced saccharine sentimentality we are accustomed to seeing in comparable American films of this era, this film offers a much purer form of emotional involvement, one that is spiritual and cleansing.  At the time, the West perceived Soviets as soulless automata, slaves to a misguided and dangerous ideology.  This film paints a very different picture, giving a starkly human face to Communist Russia.  If, by the end of the film, your face is awash with tears, it is not through some cynical directorial sleight of hand, but because what it presents is a thing of devastating truth, one that transcends culture, language and time.

The film owes much of its searing emotional impact to the casting of the (then) unknown actors Vladimir Ivashov and Zhanna Prokhorenko in the lead roles of Alyosha and Shura.  Neither actor had appeared in a film before this and their lack of experience was a positive asset, bringing a raw naturalistic quality to their portrayals of a nervous but dedicated young soldier and the stray girl he meets on a train.   After this, Ivashov and Prokhorenko would both go on to enjoy long and successful acting careers in the Soviet Union, but here there is a special alchemy to their on-screen rapport.  In the film's most spectacular sequence, a series of overlapping close-ups edited into an alluring dream, Chukhrai makes us aware of the powerful feelings that are drawing their characters together, a bond that will be suddenly and brutally severed in the following scene, which ranks as one of the most devastating in Soviet cinema.  More than half a century after it was made, Ballad of a Soldier still has the power to make grown men weep - such is the folly of war.

Film Synopsis

During World War Two, Alexei Nikolaevich Skvortsov, a 19-year-old Russian soldier, destroys two enemy tanks single-handedly when he is taken by surprise.  He is offered a decoration for his valour but he asks only to be allowed to return to his home village, to see his widowed mother and repair the roof on her house.  Alexei is given six days, ample time to make the return trip and fulfil his errand - or so he thinks.  On the way, the young soldier's compassion for his fellow man causes him to delay his return.  He meets another soldier, a sad wreck of a man who has lost one of his legs in battle and who cannot face being a burden to his wife.  On a freight train, Alexei then meets a young woman of his own age, Shura, with whom he forms an immediate bond of attachment.  The girl tells the soldier that she is on her way to visit her fiancé, a pilot who is recovering in hospital.  After being briefly separated, the two young people meet up a second time, and the girl confesses that she is not engaged.  It is with a heavy heart that Alexei leaves Shura, knowing he will never see her again, so that he can complete his journey.  Once again, fate is not kind to Alexei.  A German bombardment destroys the bridge his train is just about to cross.  He must complete the journey by road.  Will he reach his mother before his time runs out...?