In the vast and uninhabited alpine wilderness, the smoke of war has not yet dissipated, a Finnish sniper Wick, a Russian officer Ivan, and an ethnic minority woman Annie met unexpectedly. The language barrier and the opposition in position seem to have become a barrier to communication, but there are always some things that cannot be erased. This is the Russian film "The Cuckoo on the Battlefield", a legend, a fable.
So far, so close
When Wick was chained to the mountains and could only look out through the muzzle of a sniper, the world was condensed into that tiny space. He saw Ivan drive by, saw his car wrecked in the bombing, saw Anne bury the body silently, saw her drag him away, but Wick had no idea how their fates would meet. In his eyes, they were nothing more than a tiny figure at the end of the sniper window, which could only be used to prove that he had not been abandoned by the world. The sniper window gives people a feeling of being small and far away, symbolizing the real distance between the three people at this moment, which seems so far away.
But when Wick finally broke free, the distance was suddenly shortened. In order to get real freedom from the shackles on his feet, he went into Annie's cabin. The image that was originally far away from the sniper window suddenly became real and became a part of his life. The relationship between watching and being watched in the past has suddenly changed to the support of sharing weal and woe. The sense of suffocation given by the sniper window is dissolved in the empty space, and a sense of intimacy is born.
After that, the use of the sniper window still appeared many times in the film, but it brought not only distance, but an emotional gaze. The opposition between near and far, seeing and being seen, gradually blurs with the passage of time, which can be said to be the director's originality.
Second, I'm sorry, what did you say?
Wick speaks Finnish, Ivan speaks Russian, Annie speaks Saami, and the three communicate in completely different languages. This is the biggest conflict in the film. The most common scene is that one person is gushing, and the other person is wrongly responding according to his own understanding, and we may find this situation a bit comical when looking at the subtitles. And this is a big burden set by the director in this film.
We often say that language is an essential weapon for communication, but after watching this film, you can feel the paleness of language at this time. Even in many cases, language does not play any role in the communication between them, but eyes, movements or smiles can help each other understand each other's meaning. This can't help but remind me of "The Empty House", which also downplays the role of language in communication, but digs deeper into the heart.
Different languages, same people, same life under the same sky. This kind of meaning is very clear in the film, but this is far from the whole of the film.
3. None of us belong here
During World War II, Finland was an ally of the German army, and Russia belonged to the staunch anti-fascist camp. Such identities put Wick and Ivan on opposing sides the moment they first met. In reality, of course, they weren't two fanatical warfighters: Wick was an undergrad who hated military life and was punished by being shackled to a stone by his comrades for violating discipline. And Ivan is more of a soldier with a literary temperament. He loves poetry and takes Yesenin's photo with him as an encouragement, but he doesn't want to be exposed by his colleagues and then put on trial. On the battlefield, they are all unqualified soldiers, and they are more or less separated from their proper identity.
These two people met unexpectedly at the end of the war. Two men who both have different perceptions of their own identity react differently to the appearance of the other. Wick is tired of the war and just wants to go home as soon as possible, and repeatedly explains Ivan's obvious hostility and wants to be friends with him; Ivan has regarded Wick as a goddamn fascist from the beginning, and is wary of him in every possible way, even against him. Wick's intimacy with Anne is full of jealousy, always looking for an opportunity to get rid of him. It is somewhat ironic that the two people who had no good feelings for war had to become hostile sides far away from the battlefield.
This is another burden set by the director. Wick and Ivan are both men who have no sense of belonging. On the battlefield, they can't find the meaning of life, but outside the battlefield, they must return to their identities as soldiers. Such contradictions make the time they live together full of various incongruent factors, but they also get more dramatic conflicts. In this vast and uninhabited alpine wasteland, their desire to belong has grown stronger, which provides the basis for the development of the film.
4 All Soldiers Are Unborn Children
The protagonists of the film are two men and a woman. On the surface, the two men should be in a strong position, but in reality, Anne is in charge of their lives, and she is actually playing the role of a mother here. Annie's helping Ivan heal, mending their clothes, cooking for them, and even conjuring Wick's spirit when he's threatened with death puts her in a very important position.
Some people say that all soldiers are children, and the battlefield is where they grow up. But for Wick and Ivan, two incompetent soldiers, Anne took care of her mother. Without her, Wake and Ivan would never have been able to experience such a return of life. Therefore, when there are two blond children at the end of the film, Anne tells them the story of Wick and Ivan in a calm tone, and in the midst of the colorful, you will suddenly feel a little warmer in the world. And when Annie said to the children, "You have the same names as your fathers - Wick and Ivan," I was surprised to find that this was the most hidden burden the director gave. Life becomes a cycle here, and Annie becomes the real mother of Wick and Ivan.
The five o'clock magic
movie is originally based on a story with some fantasy colors, and the director seems to be not enough, and arranges an unusually magical plot at the end of the film. Wick was accidentally injured by Ivan and was in danger, while Anne used traditional methods to conjure her soul, hoping that Wick could return safely. We see, on the one hand, Annie shouting "I'm going to drag your roots out" and "Follow the dog back" beside the unconscious Wick beside the unconscious Wick; It was Wick's soul wandering through the dark valley, wandering in the call of death and the voice of Annie, not knowing which way to go in the end.
This is the darkest scene in the movie. Wick's soul is even more and more deviated from the direction of life under the leadership of Death, but the faint voice of Anne made him finally throw away the hands of Death and strode towards the other side of life. This is not only the rebirth of Wick, but also the rebirth of Ivan. He can finally abandon the narrowness of the past and face the meaning of life. Using such a passage, the director not only completed the baptism of Wick and Ivan, but also strengthened the important role of the mother's role in their lives.
Six departure and return
The movie ends with both Wick and Ivan eventually leaving Annie and returning to their respective hometowns. Before leaving, they said thank you to Annie, but were urged to leave by Annie. In the voice-over, Annie said calmly: I know they don't belong here, they are going back to their mother, so I sewed thick clothes for them, prepared food, and they broke up on that hill.
The two men who always wore military uniforms in the movie finally took off their heavy skins, put on the most primitive animal skins, and said goodbye to the past in the ice and snow. They left Annie, left each other, walked away with firm steps. The two men who had no sense of belonging at first finally found a foothold after going through hardships. While taking off their military uniforms, they completely transition from a specific identity to an ordinary person, which is the ultimate theme of the film - return.
Seven Listening to the Cuckoo Talk
The title of the film is literally translated as "Cuckoo", which has two meanings in the film: During World War II, Russia often called Finnish snipers "Cuckoo"; at the same time, Anne's name is in Saami It also means "cuckoo".
The film ends with Annie's statement, and the whole movie is actually a story Annie tells her two sons, and we've been listening to this cuckoo talk and tell her own story. Then, I saw that the colorless mountains opened a little colorful, this is the color of home.
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