THE 100 BEST WAR MOVIES: #78. The Cranes Are Flying (1957)

 

                “The Cranes Are Flying” is a Soviet film directed by the acclaimed Mikhail Kalatozov and released in 1957.  The film was shot by the great cinematographer Sergey Urusevskiy.  He used a lot of hand-held camera-work.  Urusevskiy was a combat photographer in the war and used his experiences.   It won the Palme D’Or at Cannes in 1958 and is still the only Russian movie to win that prestigious award.  It is set on the home front during the Great Patriotic War (World War II)

            The movie opens with the heroine Veronika (Tatiana Samoilova) and her fiancé Boris (Aleksey Batalov) watching a flight of cranes before traipsing through the streets of their Soviet city.  Their wedding has to be postponed because Boris does his patriotic duty and volunteers when the Germans invade.  In a remarkable tour de force by cinematographer Urusevsky, we follow Veronika through the crowd as she tries to say goodbye to Boris at the train station.  The military band, the tears of loved ones, and the excitement that comes with war are all apparent.  Veronika does not make contact with Boris which is an inkling that this will be a post-Stalin movie that will allow its audience to mourn their losses along with Veronika.  She gets married to Boris’ cousin, but not because she is jilting Boris.  Her husband is a cad and she is morose for much of the movie.  They live with Boris’ family.  His father (Fyodor Ivanovich) is a doctor near the front.  Veronika works as a nurse.  She has no word of what has happened to Boris.  A feeling shared by many women in the audience.  The movie concludes with the returning of the troops from the war.  Veronika hopes Boris will be amongst them.          

ACTING:                      A

ACTION:                      N/A

ACCURACY:               N/A

PLOT:                           B

REALISM:                    A

CINEMATOGRAPY:      A+  outstanding

SCORE:                        average -  it sounds like an art house film

BEST SCENE:  Veronika searches for Boris at the embarkation

BEST QUOTE:   Fyodor:  I know. That's just an excuse. Big deal! So your bride ran off. You should be glad! She isn't worth a penny if she would trade a handsome guy like you, a real hero, for some rat sitting out the war at home! It's she who's forfeit her happiness, not you! And that's what she deserves. She's got a petty soul. People like her can't understand how much suffering we've gone through. You stood up to death itself. You looked death in the face. You approached it with your chest stuck out. And she couldn't even pass the little test of time. Woman like her deserve only your contempt. There can be no forgiveness for them!  [Veronika is standing near and hears this rant against unfaithful women]

            The film looks like it was meant to be shown in film school.  It is definitely more avant-garde than most war films.    The movie is not overly propagandistic or preachy, but it definitely has a patriotic message to convey.  Ladies, stand by your soldier man.  People, it’s okay to mourn your dead and move on.  The movie goes beyond these trite themes into uncharted territory for a Soviet film.  Not coincidentally, with the death of Stalin, the film boldly does not focus on the greatness of the regime.  It bravely covers draft dodging, war profiteering, and the black market for the first time in a Soviet film.

            This is a director’s movie.  It’s one of those films where you are aware of the craft that went into it.  This is mainly apparent from the astounding cinematography.  There are several scenes that should be film school staples – the bombed apartment, the death of Boris, Veronica’s attempted suicide, the departure and return of the soldiers.  There is one shot where Urusevsky uses a hand-held camera to track Veronika from a bus into a crowd and then suddenly he is on a crane ascending above the crowd!

            The acting is better than most Soviet movies.  The cast is solid, but Samojlova dominates.  It made her a celebrity.  Unfortunately, the Soviet government pressured her to turn down offers to go West.  The characters are pretty stereotypical – the stern father, the loving boyfriend, the cad, the wise grandmother, the cynical spinster sister-in-law  – but they are not caricatures.  Veronika is not the woman who stoically waits for her man to come back.  She reacts to the lack of word from Boris and her unhappy marriage by going into a shell.  It’s an attempted suicide and the saving of an orphaned boy that bring her out of her trance and she takes back her life.  Still, the movie ends with a heart-breaking scene that does hint at healing for her and the nation as a whole.  Vasili Merkuryev is great as the father.  Soviet war movies have some wonderful father figures.  While his son Boris is the classic Soviet man who sacrifices for his country, Fyodor is sarcastic about the war and does not encourage his son to join.  Yet, he serves as a no-nonsense head of a hospital.  A venue that allows the movie to show the injured from war.  One of them gets a “Dear Ivan” letter that when read is devastating to Veronika and shaming to women in the audience that might not have kept faith for their husbands or boy friends in the war.  The cousin is a vile figure and if Veronika stands in for all the fiances left behind, he represents the jerks who avoided service.  The plot is the tropeish war parts the lovers and their lives change for the worse.  As such, it is better than most, including American and British equivalents.  It is a sobering movie, but not treacly.

            “The Cranes Are Flying” is a must see for all war movie lovers.  It is one of the best Soviet war movies and the rare war movie that looks at war from the female point of view.  It became one of the prime examples of the Khrushchev Thaw.  Khrushchev’s criticism of Stalinism gave the green light for films that addressed the tragedy of the WWII.  Other movies in this group were “Ivan's Childhood”, “Ballad of a Soldier”, and “The Fate of a Man”.  I think “The Cranes Are Flying” is the best of the lot.