BALLAD OF A SOLDIER

Grigori Chukhrai's "Ballad of a Soldier" was one of the first post-war Russian films to enjoy international success, (it won the BAFTA for Best Film and its screenplay was nominated for the Oscar). Of course, it isn't hard to see why the film proved so popular in the West. In many ways it's a typical Hollywood love story, as lyrical as anything Frank Borzage might have made. These Russians weren't 'the red menace' and could just as easily have come from the American Midwest. Its hero is Alyosha, (Vladimir Ivashov; handsome, boyish, nineteen, a Richard Barthelmess of the Steppes), and the film recounts his last journey home from the Russian Front during World War 11. Not a great deal happens; he helps a soldier who las lost a leg get home and he meets a girl and falls in love. It might even be banal were it not for the artistry and the poetry which Chukhrai puts into every frame, (Vladimir Nikolayev and Era Savelyeva's cinematography is superb; there are scenes, particularly in the closeups, that could have come from the best of silent cinema). And it is this artistry which elevates the picture beyond anything Hollywood was making at the time, (compare this to Dmytryk's really banal "The Young Lions"). Its simplicity may no longer be fashionable but it's a great film nevertheless.