This debut feature-length wartime drama by noted Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky was a remarkable introduction to a remarkable career. The poetic touch of Tarkovsky's hand and his measured pace is already evident as the tale of the young, twelve-year-old Ivan (Nikolai Burlyayev) evolves. Ivan is orphaned after his village is wiped out by an invading Nazi army and as a consequence, he ends up in a prison camp. The inventive lad escapes and is adopted by Captain Kholin (Valentin Zubkov), whose
intention is to send the boy away to school. But Ivan is determined to help the Russian army and so he starts spying on the German forces. Because of his tender years he manages to pass freely back and forth behind enemy lines -- at least for awhile. This exemplary film won the top prize, the Golden Lion award at the 1962 Venice Film Festival and also won the Grand Prize at the 1962 San Francisco Film Festival. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
Beauty, poetry and sadness are certainly lodged in its brief dramatic span, to be seized and embraced by anybody who will give a compassionate mind to it.
The plot is straight out of the grayish, state-approved, thesis-tidy Ballad of a Soldier bin, but the landscapes and visions are Andrei Tarkovsky's and nobody else's
Ivan's Childhood plays exactly like what it is - the dream experience of a first-time filmmaker finally allowed to spread his artistic wings and show what he's made of.
Tarkovsky deviated from the conventional dictums of Socialist realism, providing an unusual combination of psychological realism and a haunting, surrealistic imagery of an adolescent, who was rubbed off his childhood.
From the Criterion Collection Spine Number 397, this is a excellent Russian film about a young boy who is actually a spy for the Russians against the Germans in WWII. A very capturing story. In Russian with English subtitles. The child is an excellent actor, afraid of nothing. A good Black and White Film. A treasure
in this collection worth 4 1/2 stars
November 9, 2011
Bruce Bruce
Super Reviewer
Tarkovsky's masterpiece is the absolute embodiment of the cruelty of war and the loss of innocence. His craftsmanship is untouchable, although many a director has been influenced, Ivan's Childhood remains one of his greatest and most important films of his relatively short career.
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