Blucher One of the worst movies I've ever seen

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

vladislavmanoylo In discussing the horrors of a war, Ballad of a soldier spends its time on the tragedies and victories outside of the battle. The film starts with an exaggerated encounter of a man running from a tank, and eventually stopping it and another tank. That strange scene, with its equally exaggerated camera angles, is pretty much the only direct reference to the war, and after that the war is something that bleeds into life but doesn't cover it. The war is tragic, but because of what it does to life, not what it does to politics. And the heroes are heroic because of who they are as people, not what they've done for the cause.In this movie the casualties of war are the families forced to leave their homes, the wife unfaithful to her deployed husband, the almost soul-mates separated by a train that has to leave on time and the mother who has to see her son for the last time. And the beautiful moments are made of honest love between people.This movie is clearly against war, not just because of what happens in battle, but because of what it does to lives outside of it. The framing and lighting of the scenes frequently emphasizes the individual in the scene, letting an expressive face and its context tell the story. And much like its protagonist, this movie's story is very tragic, but it does not always feel that way because of how earnestly and sweetly it tells its story, and its worth watching because of that.

Sal Marandino I thought Ballad of a Soldier was definitely a must watch for a wide ranger of viewers. It offers a broad spectrum of genres including romance, historical, and war. I want to say, however, that when I say historical, you will not learn about the Second World War from this film. Instead, you learn of a different perspective on how the war affected different nations and cultures at the time. As an American studying American History for almost my entire life, it was interesting to see a vague intro to how the citizens of the Soviet Union reacted to the devastation caused by the war. Also, the ending really showed the viewer how important it was for soldiers during the war to see their parents, even if that means they only get to see them for a few minutes. Overall, I felt that Ballad of a Soldier is a must see for any cultural film fan.

Justin Bishop During World War II, Pvt. Alyosha Skvortsov (Vladimir Ivashov) receives a commendation for his heroism, and elects to take a four day leave to visit his mother. Ballad of a Soldier follows him along what should be a simple train ride, but turns into a masterpiece of beautiful humanism. The story not only follows one soldier, but through his encounters it also exposes Russia as a whole during wartime, from his talking in the soldiers only train-car to when he finally returns to the village and hears from the wives left at home.Ballad of a Soldier manages to span an entire culture and war in just four days along a train track. While director Chukhraj must remain loyal to the Party, he manages to still show the flaws some soldiers had, while showing how some could be truly selfless. During one encounter as Alyosha is caught, he is forced to give away his rations to a greedy guard, and the guard's commander catches the bribe in the act. Rather than punishing the hitchhiking Private, the commander punishes the greedy guard and allows Alyosha to carry on his journey.In the span of just four days Alyosha falls in love with a girl, while in the span of just 90 minutes the viewer falls in love with Alyosha and his story. The announcement at the start of the film that Alyosha is dead makes his experiences all the more impactful, knowing that he will never return home again, and assuming that he may never see his love Shura (Zhanna Prokhorenko) after he leaves her.Alyosha is an idealization of what many Russian soldiers were: Young, and willing to give anything for their country. He is both brave and fearful, and along his epic trip he never hesitates to give help to those around him. The favor is returned to him by civilians such as a truck driver whom he rides with, eager to support a soldier in any way they can. Through his story, soldiers and civilians alike are immortalized, in their sacrifice during World War II.

ironhorse_iv Some Americans at the time, must have thought, that the godless Soviets were just cold-blooded killers without any sense of a soul. This 1959 war film movie directed by Grigori Chukhrai, proves them, wrong, big time with its gripping story about love! Ballad of a Soldier is not primarily just a war film. It recounts, within the context of the turmoil of war, various kinds of love: the romantic love of a young couple, the committed love of a married couple, and a mother's love of her child, as a Red Army soldier named Pvt. Alyosha Skvortsov (Volodya Ivashov) tries to make it home during a leave, after being rewarded for taking out two German tanks. On the way, he meets several people and help them deal with the stress of war time life. But with each random act of kindness, spells less time for him to reach his love ones before he has to go back to his life as a soldier on the war front. This Soviet love road movie came out, and really surprised the world! It even surprising got an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay in the US, where most people show them as just the enemy. The film paint a very positive light of the red army without going over patriotic. It didn't felt like a propaganda film. It shows, a realistic tone to the war with the amount of loses that Russia was taken. The film show a subversive or critical tone to lose. Things like this, would be banned or censored under Stalinism. It illuminates how war can ravish both an individual and a country. Coming off, from the death of totalitarian Joseph Stalin, a few years earlier in 1953. Soviet movies makers can now have a little bit freedom, as the regime became more, reformed. It did help that the Soviet leader, at the time, Nikita Khrushchev was a fan of the director, so Chukrai was given more flexibility than normal. It really shows here with how the soldiers were portray. The movie is about the incredible ability of humans to adapt to the most extreme conditions on survival instinct, love and courage. The film is beautiful well-shot. Just watching it, you can see the how much work was put into this film from the wide shots of farmland to the harsh reality of the battlefield. Beautiful cinematography for a black & white film. Another great thing about the movie is the music by Mikhail Ziv. You be clutching at your heart-strings for it. Another thing, great about the movie is the pacing. For a movie that's 88 minutes long. They really put a lot of things into it that are pretty well-delivery stories. The movie didn't need a lot of dialogue, as the movie show more than it told. The movie had such a convincing and humane performance from both Vladimir Ivashov and Zhanna Prokhorenko, as his love-interest Shura. They make a beautiful couple. They had amazing chemistry. Zhanna was stunning, she had the face of an angel. Her character had a lot of depth. Even supporting actors help show the stress, love has to go through like the ex-soldier, Vasya (Evgeniy Urbanskiy) sub-plot of being a burden to his wife due to him, losing a leg. Another great scene is when Alyosha visit a fellow soldier's wife (Valentina Markova), only to find out that she was cheating on him. Really heart-breaking. The whole film is very touching. The movie faults could be that it's pretty predictable and somewhat depressing. After all, the movie opening really set the tone of the film, by stating out what happen to Alyosha during the war. I didn't felt the narrative prologue was needed in the beginning, since they repeat it in the end, as well. It really makes you wonder, why am I'm watching this film, if something really bad is going to happen him in the end. It kinda guilt-trip you into an emotional trap. The warmth is missing in the overdubbed voices, in the dubbed version of the film. If you find a copy, watch the movie in Russian, with English sub-titles. One version worth checking out is the Criterion one. It remove instances of dirt, debris and scratches. The result of Criterion's efforts is a presentation that's pretty extraordinary, considering this is pretty old film. The image looks slightly better than the others DVDs, out there. Overall: This movie left a deep impression to me. Marvelously acted, powerful and often thought-providing film is worth the watch.