Essay Plan for A Ballad of a Soldier Film
The film was released in 1959 as part of a cultural exchange
with the United States. It focuses on the emotional trauma caused by the war
behind the frontlines among the normal civilians rather than on the heroic
deeds of the soldiers in battle. Cinema was not just for entertainment but it
was seen as the ‘highest form of art’ by Lenin himself who recognised the
propaganda value of the film to influence the masses when many were illiterate.
Propaganda was used in a ‘totalitarian regime’ to control the people but there
was more freedom. There was a movement away from socialist realism and the
dogmatic socialism under Stalin due to the cultural thaw under Khruschev and as
such the directors were given more artistic freedom to show what they wanted.
The director has made a film that contains anti-war messages but at the same
time doesn’t focus on the horror of the events.
The post-war soviet cinema could not be trusted because the ‘real facts’
were obscured and everything was over emphasised but, in this film, there is
some acknowledgement of the mistakes they have made.
It is a poignant ad beautiful film that aimed to show that
their worst enemy was not the Germans, but rather their own selves and the way
that people behaved towards each other in those difficult times. WWII was also
known as the ‘Great Patriotic War’ and the Russian soldiers were fighting for
the noble cause of protecting their family, friends and homeland from the evil
invading forces. The film focuses on the positive aspects of humanity to present
the best version of their people and their participation in the war to the rest
of the world. This outlook had become part of their official memory of the war,
they were fighting for ‘truth, justice and victory’. This simple slogan almost
echoes the simple slogans that were advertised on propaganda pieces during the
time of the war. In the context of the film one can say that the film has a
political cause in the sense that it is trying to justify the actions of the
Russian people and absolve them of the blame and guilt for the horrible actions
that they participated in during the war and that has been omitted from both
the film and official memory but solely focusing on those positive aspects.
The ending scene of the film provokes a great sense of patriotic
pride in their participation in the war which was part of their official memory
because they took great pride and love in their country which was also known as
the ‘motherland’. The construction of official memory of the war was for
political and ideological purposes because they wanted to manipulate their own
people and the rest of the world into believing that they were fighting for a
noble and just cause. In reality the war had been caused by the tactical
blunders of Stalin who refuses to acknowledge that the Germans were attacking
them. The film closes with the caption, “Alyosha could have been a farmer or the great son of his
mother, but instead he is remembered as the Russian Soldier”. His
position as ‘the Russian Soldier’ elevates his position above his own birth
because he is part of a much larger concept, he is part of the army which has
thousands and millions of people. His new position is much more important than
his old life as a ‘farmer’ and even his position of birth as a ‘son’ because one
has to leave that behind when they become a ‘Russian soldier’ as seen in the
ending scene when he is driving away from those two concepts. He is driving
away from his farm that he grew up on and from his mother.
The term ‘the’
reminds the audience that the term is not specific to Alyosha but rather to all
the other young men that were similar to him that served in the army because
there were so many of them. It is a term that is used with pride, especially
when used in reference to the official memory of the war because those soldiers
had been given a higher purpose. The film focuses on the journey of the one
particular soldier of Alyosha, which mirrors the plight of Russia having to
fight against their enemies virtually alone without the help of the allied
powers which made their victory all the more poignant and powerful because it
shows the strength of their soldiers and their society to be able to resist
against one of the worst armies in the world and in history.
In the context of propaganda, Alyosha is the model soldier
and offers a biased view of the attitudes of all the soldiers that were serving
on the frontline because there was only a focus on his positive characteristics
when during the war there was a much darker side to the actions of the soldiers-
for example the rape of women by the Red Army which happened on a mass scale.
He is young, charming and conventionally good looking with his blond hair and
open and honest face. He never seems to be afraid of the war but rather remains
optimistic and kind throughout by constantly helping other people and never
thinking that they would not win the war. He does not take the opportunity to
desert the frontlines and in the end, he rushes back to the frontline despite
only spending a few minutes with his mother because he understands the
importance of his role on the frontline and the duty that he has to finish. He
never questions his role or the reasons for fighting because he is not
motivated by politics but rather from the desire to protect the people that he
sees on his journey to his mother’s house. He does not think that he is going
to die because he tells his mother that he is going to come back. He is strong
and fearless when he heads back to the frontline and that can be seen as the
attitudes that the Russian soldiers had when they were entering into battle on
the frontline.
Therefore, the film fulfilled both the requirements of a
piece of propaganda about the positive nature of their people and the noble
cause behind their participation in WWII which coincided with the construction
of official memory.
How was it not a propaganda film?
Social commentary that does not focus on the heroic actions
of the war but rather the emotional trauma that it left behind the frontlines
and among the families.
·
Lack of a father figure
·
The taboos that are never
spoken about – the rape of the women and the cowardice of the soldiers shown in
the first scene when they were running away from the tank
·
Loneliness of the women who
were left to defend themselves when all the men were called away to war but
they should have been supported by the state
·
Decision to go back and
fight in the army which shows his patriotic nature
·
Alyosha is motivated by his
love for his mother which makes him undergo the journey to go back and see her
just as she loves him and is excited to see him at the end of the film.
Discuss the various concepts of love:
·
Love between a mother and
her son which is the purest and most emotional form of love- final scene when
she is running towards him
Final scene running towards him- the love she feels for him.
Waiting regardless of how long for her son to come home- a
mother’s love never goes away- waiting for love.
·
The innocent love between
Alyosha and Shura
Their faces staring lovingly at each other on the train was
intersected with images of nature to show that their love was natural, honest
and pure but they never kiss. It’s on a train- their relationship is on a
journey and moving away from each other
Characters.
·
Love between the soldier
and his country because he chooses to protect it with his life and he is
willing to die for his country
·
Committed love – contrast
between the married couple who accepts each other even though they are disfigured
and the woman who decides to sleep with another man and is the only reference
to the bourgeoise
The film does not focus on the action packed and horror
filled details of WWII but on the emotional impact of those behind the action
of the frontline. It is predominately a film about love rather than war, a love
The beginning and the ending scene both depict Alyosha’s
mother waiting at the end of a white road for her son to come home from the
war. It reflects the plight of all the mothers across the nation waiting for
their children to return, regardless of the amount of time that has passed. The
love between a mother and son is one of the purest forms of love. The white
road and the empty landscape in the beginning and the end scene suggest that
she has the patience and tranquillity to continue waiting. She has waited
throughout the film for her son to come back and there is a sense she would
continue to wait long after the film has finished because a mother stops
waiting or loving their children even though the audience knows that her son
has died and would never come back. A comparison can be between Alyosha’s
mother and the mother figure of Russia itself waiting for all her children in
the form of soldiers to come home once more. This image of the mother on the
road, waiting, is a universal figure that all the families across the globe
could connect with because it is such an understandable reaction. Shura waiting
at the train station represent all the young women who were waiting for their
husbands and brothers to come back from the war. Shura and the mother are
different ages but the war has affected everyone regardless. The mothers
waiting place for her son to come back is by the road whereas the one for Shura
is by the train station and they are both places of transport and travel. All
the women were waiting for the men of the war to come home to them.
The mother standing by the road cuts a lone figure in the
shot and emphasis the loneliness that women felt when all the men left to go to
war and left them behind. During the war there was a high death toll and many
families were torn apart as a result. Alyosha does not have a father and there
is a suggestion that it could be because he died in the first world war and his
son has followed his footsteps into death and war. Just as the first and last
scene repeat themselves so too does the circle of life and death. When Alyosha
dies than the mother would truly be alone because she has no one else to help
her with her survival. The lonely figure of the women was radical because it
can be interpreted as a criticism of the state and the war. Under socialism people
were not supposed to be alone because they should have been able to reply on
their commune to support them and the state to always be there for them. The
film was published during the cultural thaw of Khruschev which allowed one to
analyse the flaws of socialism under Stalin. This lack of support and ensuring
loneliness for women meant that they were forced to provide for themselves by
working and they were left with the responsibility to keep the country moving
forward when there were no more men to work the land. Although women were seen
as lonely figures, they also gained a certain strength from this new found
independence.
Discuss the politics in the film:
·
Love- the only act of
adultery was committed by a member of the bourgeoise class.
·
The emphasised innocent
nature of the love between Shura and Alyosha which was in line with communist
party thought being against sex but also did not look into the rape of the
women
·
Anti-war movie because
there was a focus on the emotional trauma. Lack of a guiding father figure as
seen by the failure of Stalin to understand there was a war happening.
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