Trial on the Road (1971)

 

            “Trial on the Road” (also know as “Checkpoint” or “Check-Up on the Road”) is a black and white Soviet film directed by Aleksey German.  It is based on his father’s novel “Operation ‘Happy New Year’”.  The movie was pulled after release and not shown for another 15 years because of its controversial depiction of partisans and collaboration.

            The movie is set in 1942, at a time when the war was not going well for the Red Army.  The movie opens with the Nazis destroying a village to retaliate against the partisans.  In the tit-for-tat that characterized the Great Patriotic War, the partisans ambush a German column and capture a former Soviet soldier who is in a German uniform.  Lazarev (Vladimir Zaminsky) had switched sides when he had been captured earlier by the Germans.  He wants a second chance and Commander Lokotkov (Rolan Bykov) is sympathetic.  Normally, a collaborator would have been executed, so Lazarev is very lucky.  But he has to prove himself in order to avoid that eventual outcome.  Many of the partisans in his new unit are skeptical about his change of heart.  His big chance to prove himself will be an attack on a railway station.

            This is an unusual movie in that it does not fit the usual Soviet war movie template.  Normally officers are treated well, but here the commissar is a jerk.  But more amazingly, a traitor is the hero.  Lasarev is a unique character.  He does not excuse his collaboration, so he clearly was not forced to join the Germans in killing Russians, especially partisans.  He is in need of redemption (note his name being similar to Lazarus), but does he deserve it.  It is unrealistic that he is not immediately killed when he was captured.  Audiences and the Soviet government certainly expected that and it was doubly controversial by having Lasarev end up a hero.  How the movie got green-lit is perplexing, but its long-term ban is not.  Another problem is the partisans are not lionized as in every other Soviet film.  The peasants suffer for connection to them and at one point they are willing to blow up a bridge with a barge full of Russian prisoners underneath it. 

            The movie has a style to it.  Cinematographer Yakov Sklansky uses lots of long takes, stationary cameras, and deep focus.  The acting does not match the flash.  It’s only average.  Even Zamansky does not stand out.  The problem with the film is he is playing an unrealistic character.  It’s not just that he should not have survived his capturing.  He seems to be a good soldier and one must wonder why he would have collaborated with the Germans.  A bigger problem is the attitude of Lokotkov. Why does he risk his own life by trusting Lasarev?  And he risks the unit by trusting him to lead the last mission.  That mission is suspenseful, but predictable because Lasarev’s fate does not break the mold for his sort of redemption.

            “Trial on the Road” is not one of the great Soviet war movies.  I am a fan of this subgenre and feel it falls below the upper rank like “Come and See” and “The Dawns Here Are Quiet”.  However, it is entertaining and thought-provoking.  It provokes thinking specifically about how the heck it got made.  And you are left wondering if Lasarev was just pretending to be a sincere partisan just to stay alive.

GRADE  =  B-