LogFAQs > #981520901

17. The Ascent
Originally released as , 1977, Soviet Union
Director: Larisa Shepitko

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Then go, go on living - without a conscience. It can be done.

Rankings:

Inviso: 5
Seginus: 13
Exdeath: 14
Karo: 21
Johnbobb: 27

Inviso:

This is another one of those historical dramas which tells a story about a time period and part of the world that I dont really think about all that often as an American: namely Russia during World War II, when the Nazis had taken over certain parts of their motherland. But yeah, the film is about a pair of Russian soldiers fighting against German occupation, struggling in the winter snow as theyre trying to find food for their battalion, and yet over the first third of the movie, they come across multiple houses featuring multiple Belarussian citizens who reject them at first (a Nazi collaborator) or try to hide them, but regardless of their actions, these two soldiers being in proximity leads to them receiving punishment as though theyd been aiding and abetting both ways.

The back two thirds, however, see the two soldiers captured and they, along with the mother who aided them (ripped away from her three children) and the man who did not (ripped away from his wife) are taken into custody for interrogation by the Nazis. Its here that the movie really starts to get interesting, because throughout that first third, you have the one soldierSotnikovwho has been shot and developed a fever, and hes been ready to die for the good of Mother Russia. But Rybak is far less serious about his role in the army, and he doesnt want to die. Hes the one who surrenders rather than get shot, leading to the mothers capture. And throughout the film, we get scenes of him bravely fleeing and taking bullets to the backbut these are just fantasies and hes too cowardly to risk his own life.

Sotnikov is wounded and suffering, and hes brought in for interrogation, where a star is burned into his chest for refusing to divulge any information. Rybak, however, spills every bit of information he has at the first possible opportunity. They wind up together and Rybak tries to justify his cowardice to an incredulous Sotnikov, and things are made worse when the collaborator and the mother join them in prison, captured and sentenced to death because these two soldiers disrupted their lives. Also, a Jewish child is thrown in, to really hammer home how fucked up the Nazis were. And in the end, Sotnikov TRIES to shoulder all the blame for everyone, but the Nazis arent having iteveryone must die. Except Rybak, who begs for his life via the promise of joining the German police he was offered.

I really like how the back half of this movie manages to essentially tell a Passion story, with Sotnikov taking on kind of a Christ-like role (including trying to help a crying collaborator, who hed berated for his treachery earlier in the film). Hes the last prisoner to hang, and hes given the full visual of light illuminating the back of his head, all the while, Rybak holds the stump hes standing on, crying as he knows that hes a coward and a traitor. To really hammer the point home, even the villagers who watched the hanging call Rybak a Judas. Its an interesting take without going full ham on the religious aspect of the narrative. And yeahwatching Rybak have to suffer the guilt of his choices is an interesting way to conclude an overall bitter narrative. Its really well done as a result.

Seginus:

A WWII engagement in Russian winter makes for a harrowing setting that keeps the characters constantly near the brink of death, extreme conditions reducing them to opposing ideological nubbins. Judasov and Jesuslavsky, its a bible story. You turn your back on the motherland its like turning your back on god, on god. Like a lot of soviet cinema, it gets a little heavy-handed with the o7 comrade message, but it feels so earned here. I mean, the scale of loss incurred on this front was unprecedented and this is just a microcosm of it.

This movie had a great sense of dread, with standout sequences of being dragged through the snow, premonitions of doomed escape attempts, longing glances across nearly empty snowfields save for one tiny figure with a rifle just waiting for a guy to risk it. I thought it was well-written and well-acted with a surprising turn from Tarkovsky regular Anatoly Solonitsyn as a villain. And I love the high-contrast black and white, it looks very striking.

Exdeath:

Ah, Soviet cinema. There is a narrative in film history about how the cold war was waged through film: while America, true to its capitalist ideology, focused on bombastic, crowd-pleasing blockbusters designed to rake in as much cash as possible, the USSR's leadership wanted to prove the superiority of Communism by churning out art films that would win awards at Cannes. I feel like it's only in Russia where a story can end with the main character failing to hang himself because if he succeeded it wouldn't quite be depressing enough. One of my regrets in making this list is that I couldn't think of enough great examples of this type of Soviet film to include. I desperately wanted Come and See on the list but left it off so Snake can use it on his war films list, so I'm gonna be PISSED if he doesn't end up including that one.

A common interpretation of Playtime, another film of this project, is that it's like an extended game of Where's Waldo, but when you really think about it the entire list is an extended exercise in spot-the-Christ. Ordet and The Holy Mountain are the first few pages where it's easy mode, and I'd say this film is the intermediate difficulty to coax you into seeking hidden Jesuses before you get into analyzing how Eraserhead (which is, after all, Lynch's most spiritual film) is a metaphor for the crucifixion or Mirror as an elaborate analogy for the religious life. Rybak is explicitly likened to Judas which makes Sotnikov the clear stand in for the lamb of God. But what makes it profound is how much humanization there is for Rybak before that moment, including how he literally carries Sotnikov on his back before they're captured by the Germans. In the end, this kind of allegorical analysis doesn't really change the meaning of the film, and it works regardless of your interest in digging up secret Messiahs. It's a depiction both of human goodness and our worst tendencies against the backdrop of the most brutal military front in the history of warfare.

Karo:

A pair of Soviet soldiers get lost in the snow and bad things happen. After wandering around in the snow a lot they get captured by Nazis and the story finally begins.
I feel a lot of the movie isnt super interesting up until the point where Rybek is forced to make tough decisions that spark his decent into madness, and unfortunately that is a good 40 minutes of nothingness.
But once this is all over with we get a pretty good story of a loyal and heroic soldier who, over just a few days of hardship: Betrays his comrades to save himself. Wants to run away, but is too much of a coward. Is too incompetent to even hang himself properly. Walks away to become a Nazi policeman with the horror on his face of someone who has realized just what a miserable and utter failure he is.
Pretty dark, but decent stuff.