The Ascent (1977)

The Ascent (Voskozhdenie)
Directed by Larisa Shepitko
Written by Yuri Klepikov and Larisa Shepitko from a novel by Vasily Bykov
1977/USSR
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Rybak: Fool! You’re a fool, Sotnikov. You graduated from the institute for nothing. I want to live! To live! To kill those bastards! Understand? I’m the soldier. And you’re a corpse. All you’ve got left is your stubbornness – your principles!

I may be maxing out on”horrors of war” movies, even movies as exquisitely shot and thoughtful as this one.

During The Great Patriotic War two partisans, Sotnikov and Rybak are escorting a group of displaced people.  The group has little food so Sotnikov and Rybak go on a mission to see if they can find some.  Before they can return to their comrades they are intercepted by Germans who shoot Sotnikov in the leg.  He bears a hundred yard stare reminiscent of Maria Falconetti’s in The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928). Clearly his days are numbered. The two men make an arduous journey through deep snow and hide in the humble house of a woman and her three children.  The  woman isn’t exactly thrilled to be hiding soldiers on the run but she does not turn them away.

The Germans arrive not long after and everyone in the village is taken in for questioning, minus the children who are simply left behind.  Sotnikov refuses to tell them anything despite terrible torture.  Rybak maintains that they don’t know anything anyway and their first duty is to remain alive so they can kill more Germans.  Rybak is offered a job in the local collaborationist police force.  Others of the prisoners are eager to spill what little they know,  In fact, the exercise is rmerely a disproportional reprisal for the death of a German (killed by Sotnikov).

This movie really is exquisitely shot.  The Russian winter vistas look splendid.  It asks some important questions about duty to country/community vs. duty to self.  Clearly the USSR soldiers are second to none. The pacing is very measured, making the movie feel longer than its 111 minutes. The score is lovely.  But I’m hitting my limit of times I can watch films that are just one cruel break after another.

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