Csillagosok, katonák (1967)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Miklós Jancsó

Writers:

Gyula Hernádi (writer)
Miklós Jancsó (writer)

Release Date:

20 September 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

In 1919, Hungarian Communists aid the Bolsheviks' defeat of Czarists, the Whites. Near the Volga, a...

Plot Keywords:

Nurse | Hungarian | Field Hospital | Monastery | Cossack

Awards:

1 win

Cast

József Madaras	...	Hungarian Commander
Tibor Molnár	...	Andras
András Kozák	...	Laszlo
Jácint Juhász	...	Istvan
Anatoli Yabbarov	...	Captain Chelpanov
Sergei Nikonenko	...	Cossack Officer
Mikhail Kozakov	...	Nestor
Bolot Bejshenaliyev	...	Chingiz
Tatyana Konyukhova	...	Yelizaveta the Matron (as Tatiana Koniukova)
Krystyna Mikolajewska	...	Olga
Viktor Avdyushko	...	Sailor
Gleb Strizhenov	...	Colonel
Nikita Mikhalkov	...	White Officer
Vladimir Prokofyev
Valentin Bryleyev

Also Known As:

Звезды и солдаты (Soviet Union: Russian title)
The Red and the White
Zvyozdy i soldaty (Soviet Union: Russian title)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

Hungary | Soviet Union

Language:

Hungarian | Russian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:12 (DVD rating) | UK:X (original rating) | Sweden:15

Company:

Mafilm

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Fejezetek a film történetéböl: A magyar film 1957-1970 (#1.18)" (1990)

A Minimalist War

Sparse, somewhat dream-like war film that will either have you yawning in your seat or sitting up and paying attention. No huge sweeping battle scenes or excessive yelling at all. On the contrary, "The Red and the White" mostly centers on several small skirmishes - short, frequently brutal little vignettes of the sickness and absurdity of war. I really liked it because it's completely unlike any war film I'd ever seen. It does not focus on any main character, or even any groups of main characters (you'd be hard-pressed to be able to identify more than one or two characters at all after it has ended), taking it's time instead to show the absurdity of war in an almost shrug-like fashion: this is war, this what it is. Although Jancso, one of Hungary's great filmmakers, very often uses a mobile camera (the photography in the film is just stunning) he doesn't allow it to intrude in any way, choosing instead to remain an observer as this little war is carried out over the rolling Hungarian hills.

Jancso could be said to side with the communists (the "Red" of the title) - I'd say he depicts them in a fairer light - but he shows both sides to be brutes. Both roam the hills routinely executing the enemy, those they suspect to be the enemy, or any hapless peasants that they may cross paths with. All in all, there is a very detached view presented of both sides, showing that war makes monsters and idiots of men no matter what their ideology. Very interesting and well worth a look for those that like a little thought put into their cinema.