The Return

I found this film today to be very interesting and a little bit confusing. I would have like to have known what the father had found in that little chest and wonder why he had to bring his two boys on that horrible journey? I found the father just to be a complete dick who didn't really seem to care at all about his sons until the very end before he falls off the tower. He also just makes both of the boys very upset throughtout most of the film, espicially Ivan who questions his father from almost the beginning and Andrei who kind of just does what he is told and really doesn't have any conflicts until the end of the movie with the father. I also wondered if the father had changed right before he died because he seemed compassionate to Ivan when he said "I Hate You" and ran off. Another thing i found interesting was how after the dad passed the kids seemed really to be pretty calm about it and you get the sense that they were almost prepared for the dad to die. I also noticed that this director like Tarkovsky used one of the four basic elements in this film alot with water. There were several scenes where wate was being shown with such vividness and purity and it was the focal point of those scenes. It definatley looked very similar to some of the scenes in Mirror.