‘Come & See’: Elem Klimov’s Nightmarish WWII Movie Is An Unflinching Masterpiece Finally Available Via Criterion
Evoking realism, hyperrealism, and the surreal, Elem Klimov’s nightmarish, technically marvelous 1985 movie “Come and See,” is a mesmerizing and legendary, if little-seen, WWII masterpiece that finally received its due earlier this summer thanks to the Criterion Collection. Based upon the novel “I Am from the Fiery Village” by Ales Adamovich —Klimov’s haunting, horrors-of-war epic shatters the senses throughout and suggests an unholy alliance between the works of Stanley Kubrick’s bravura filmmaking and Terrence Malick’s artful poeticism, but in reality, preceded both “Full Metal Jacket” (1987) and “The Thin Red Line” (1998)— and Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” (1998) for that matter.