Andy stopped by when I was watching a 1959 Russian film, “Ballad of a Soldier,” a love story set in WWII.
A soldier performs a heroic deed on the battlefield, starting a poignant tale of lost love.
I am impressed by the very subtle historic allusions to the deprivations the Russians suffered in WWII. They don’t intrude into the story line so much as augment it.
You know this will be the last the mother and son meet….
It is a lot noisier than that Russian film! (And absolutely a propaganda piece for a nation weary of war and beginning to understand they were in a fight to the last man.)
Greenies power. Even all that noise can’t hold Andy back from his treats forever.
=(^+^)=
While the Russian film was entertaining and nearly propaganda-free, it was poignant. It began with a grieving mother looking down a long road for a son who was killed in the war and never to return.
As for the Japanese film, there were frequent war references for the then-WWII war raging at the time of the filming, especially to fighting for the Emperor, the Emperor’s five learnings every Japanese had to know, the history of war for centuries, leading up to the then-current one.
The whole film emphasized the Bushido code (“the way of the warrior”) from the days of the Samuri and alluded to why the Japanese felt slighted and dishonored up till they invaded China, Korea, Mongolia, then made the fatal mistake, primarily, of involving the USA by the Pearl Harbor attack.
It smacked of defeat and denial, with heavy doses of hubris and under estimation of just how the USA would bring about the brutal war with Japan to an end with the most monstrous weapon created by man.
As a historic document, “The War” shows insights into the disastrous mentality of Emperor worship plus a militaristic mindset of the leaders at the time plus a sense of shame for failing in previous wars and negotiations.
These brought Japan to a terrible end in 1945, yet the new beginning as a democratic country that is well respected and prosperous today. It was in that historic knowledge that I watched and enjoyed “The War,” even if Andy only got through some of it, thanks to Greenies.
I recommend both films.