come and see

The internet says Francois Truffaut says there is no such thing as an anti-war film, and when I first read that, back in undergrad, it really struck me and I suspect it's largely true. No matter how gruesome and heinous and bewildering a war movie, it can be seen through the lens of stiff-upper lip, this is the sacrifice we make to keep you safe. The more intense and horrific the movie, the more selfless and noble the sacrifice. It also reminds me of this thing an ex wrote about depictions of sexual assault: https://queenmobs.com/2015/03/7272/ fwiw.

There's another movie quote, this time from Roger Ebert (who I read and reread all the time like the true middle-browler I am) who says all bad movies are depressing, and no good movies are. This too has largely rung true for me, the saddest, bleakest good movies fill me with a renewed zest for life like all good art does.

Last friday I walked alone over to 16th and Valencia grabbed a coffee and drank it in silence before going to the Roxie to watch Come and See and I think that's an apparently impossible good, depressing anti-war film and I've been kinda listless since.

I suspect it's a successful anti-war film because it doesn't really focus at all on the soldiers, there's no identifying with them and their struggle (though from what I understand Belorusian partisans had a righteous cause) and only one scene where we want some soldiers to kill others (the weakest part of the movie imo). It does a lot of slow POV shots and shots of innocent people just staring at the camera, like pleading with the viewer. Maybe it was other things too, but more so than other movies it made me fear war.

It also depressed me. After the 2008 'financial crisis', from what I read, we've only doubled down on the things that caused it in the first place. I think this might be the case on a longer timescale wrt to the wars of the 20th century. We've doubled down and the 'never again' refrains seem pretty empty and po-faced to me.

Though maybe I was just in a sort of fragile mood when I went in. I'm still recovering, still look weird, and I especially mope about not being able to use facial expressions easily. It makes me think of the pictures of early facial reconstruction for war victims that I've seen, sort of blank stiff disfigurement. Or for that matter, Roger Ebert after he had his lower jaw removed