Sunday, January 16, 2011
Burnt by the Sun
This film Burnt by the Sun was a little unclear about exactly what the plot was until the very end of the movie. They did make the character mitya seem very sketchy throughtout the film and i noticed it when he was talking to little Nadya and the bald-guy when he said to him that he lies alot. The title of the movie itself is very significant because it showed all of the people who lives ended up being ruined from the revolution and Stalin being paranoid. Its very ironic how the characters are singing the song throughout the film and it maybe be a little forshadowing because the characters end up being "Burnt by the Sun". Another thing i noitced in the film was how much the KGB kept visting the Kotov's land in the beginning in the wheat fileds with the tanks. to giving people gas masks at the river to visting Kotov at his home. I got the feeling throughout the movie that it was just a matter of time until Kotov and his family were going to run into some trouble with the Russian government. The fact that they were still living in the countryside at that time their house seemed pretty bourgeosie and that is not what the Soviet Government wanted. Comparing Chapaev and Kotov they both were well respected men and both heroes. Chapaev dies gloriously in battle while Kotov gets killed by his own government because they saw him as a threat. Mitya is the real problem and he represents the Russian Government at that time the people in control were manipulators with no morals or ethics all that they cared about was power. Mitya arresting Kotov was based entirely on personal motives because he was harmed by the government earlier in his life so he wanted to harm Kotov for revenge. Kotov represents kind of the old regime in a way even though he was a Red general hero as time goes on he gets overpowered by Mityawho represents the new people in power who are looking to get rid of all of the people who were in power. This film was made for all of the people who suffered in Russia during the years of Socialist Realism, and was intended for an i think a world wide audience because they wanted to show the whole world how bad things really were in Russia during that time and to warn people and hopefully prevent it from ever happening again.
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Jim,
ReplyDeleteI never thought of how this would be a message for the world to see so it doesn't happened again, hmm. I think it's because I am unfamilier with the details on Russian History and the little I knew prior to this class, well, it was all wrong.
I certainly enjoyed reading your take on the film project. Thanks for sharing your take on the film Burnt by the Sun.
Keep in mind that the military exercises in the wheat field at the beginning weren't being put on by the KGB. That was the Army (aka the Red Army) going through normal procedures--and it is why Col. Kotov was able to get them to go elsewhere (because he held a high position in that organization and could tell much of it what to do). The Secret Police (then known as the NKVD, later known as the KGB) were an altogether different story, however, and he obviously had no control over them nor knowledge what they were up to.
ReplyDeleteAnd the organization passing out the gas masks was also unrelated to the KGB--that was another one of those Party-related brigades. The only NKVD that we see in this film is Mitya, plus the guys in the black car (though that is obviously enough to cause great suffering in this film...).