DESTINY OF A MAN
USSR, 1959, 103 minutes, Black and white.
Directed by Sergei Bondarchuk.
Destiny of a Man was the first feature film by Sergei Bondarchuk who had begun life as an actor. The film was not released for two years but was received to great acclaim at the beginning of the 1960s. There had been a number of interesting Soviet films including Ballad of a Soldier and The Cranes Are Flying. The following year Tarkovsky would direct Ivan’s Childhood. Bondarchuk himself was to act but also to make the epic War and Peace as well as Waterloo with Rod Steiger and Christopher Plummer.
The film is based on the novel by Mikhail Sholokhov, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
During the 1950s there were many war memoirs, especially from the United States and from Great Britain. There were also German films, like The Last Bridge. However, this is a distinctively Soviet memoir of the 1920s and 30s and, especially, of one man involved in action in World War Two, taken prisoner by the Germans, treated badly, escaping – and living to vindicate his experiences. However, there is a sadness about this story of a Russian Everyman, the lyrical times of the early communist period, the innocence of the 30s, the loss of his family during the war – and his meeting with a young orphan at the end of the war and deciding to be his father.
The black and white photography is beautiful, sometimes naturalistic, often lyrical, sometimes stylised.
1.The impact of the film, in the Soviet Union, beyond? A film of the 1950s? Popularity in the 60s? The film in retrospect?
2.The film as a classic, the Soviet film production and artistry of the period? Its impact in its times?
3.The work of the director, actor, director?
4.The author, the Nobel Prize, the portrait of Russia, of the war, of human nature?
5.The title, the Russian Everyman? Fate – but a hope for destiny?
6.The black and white photography, lyrical, naturalistic, the effects, vision, action, close-ups, the crowd scenes? The musical score?
7.The frame of Andrei and the boy, the countryside, walking, talking with the driver, reminiscing, the end with the boy – and the future together?
8.The voice-over, his personality, assessment of people, action, the moods, amazement, regrets, his hopes?
9.The 1920s and life, Andrei and his age, his twenties, into his thirties, his work, building, the young woman coming to watch, taking her out, the old friend and the comment about marriage? The USSR in the 1920s? Idyllic? Communist beliefs? Andrei marrying, the collage of his life, his wife’s pregnancy, the birth, the daughters, the son? Life in the 30s? The newspaper, the maths results? His talented son, university and hopes?
10.The news of the war, its outbreak, impact, the people not knowing, the repercussions, the crowds enlisting, Andrei and his farewell to his wife, her grief, his comments, memories and regrets?
11.His experience, the mobilisation, the bombs falling, the action, his driving, evading the enemy, the accident, his being taken, not killed, the doctor and his shoulder, the arbitrary choice for hostages to be shot, the men on the move, mown down when lying on the ground, his eventual escape, into the wheat, looking at the sky, lying down, hearing the dogs, the dogs pursuing him, fighting him, his being taken back?
12.The picture of the Germans, hard, the touch of caricature, yet the memories at the end of the 1950s? The officers, arbitrary, shooting people, laughing?
13.His second escape, taking the officer prisoner, his disguise, with the officer in the back of the jeep, going to his own lines, the information, his being rewarded, medals?
14.At the front, the fighting, the news of his son, achievement, fighting, in command, his father’s pride?
15.The end of the war, the sad news about his son?
16.Finding the boy, asking the boy questions, his being abandoned, the family dead, driving him, the emotion of his stating that he was his father, the little boy’s response? Their walking together in the woods?
17.Their future together – and hopes in Russia at the beginning of the 1960s?
