The Ascent (Voskhozhdenie) (1976)

 

Opstigningen

Few countries are as vilified right now as Russia and though it is stupid and counterproductive to generalize, it cannot help but influencing my view on this movie, “The Ascent” (“Voskhozhdeniye”). This is probably the wrong time to objectively review an old Soviet movie, but it is next on my List so, no way around it.

This is a movie which, despite its significant length, is rather short on story. It is the second world war and a group of Russian partisans are being chased through the forest by the German army. Short on food, two soldiers, Rybak (Vladimir Gostyukhin) and Sotnikov (Boris Plotnikov) are sent to a village to procure supplies. It is deep (and very snowy) winter and Sotnikov is ill. There is a brief encounter with a German patrol and Sotnikov is shot in the leg. The two soldiers seek refuge in a farmhouse belonging to a woman and her small children, but are discovered and taken by another German patrol.

Now follows an interrogation by a collaborator, Portnov (Anatoli Solonitsyn) where Sotnikov refuse to corporate despite torture while Rybak quickly breaks. The rest of the movie, until the execution of Sotnikov, the farm woman, a headman and a young Jewish girl is about establishing that Sotnikov is a saint and Rybak hardly deserves to be called human.

And that seems to be the message of the movie. Those who stand firm and take a bullet for their country are admirable saints, while those who just wants to survive are dogs who do not deserve it.

As simple as that.

It is practically the opposite message from most of the Vietnam movies from this period and forward and appears tailored to follow the party line of complying at all costs. Something that really has not changed in that country. The message also seems to apply today, though I wonder how many of those Russians fighting in Ukraine are Sotnikovs or Rybaks…

This is a very bleak looking movie. The black and white cinematography is almost whitened out by the snow, all characters are worn, damaged and shabby looking and even the soundtrack (cannot really call it a score) is disturbing. You feel you are in an environment on the brink of death. Those alive are only so because they are not dead yet and the value of life is pathetic. The Germans are non-persons, monsters in uniforms, and the Russians are all into their futile heroism. There is no more depth to them than that. The only question that matters is how to die.

This was not a movie I enjoyed. The intended intensity was to my mind way over the top, the message questionable and the delivery unpleasant. It is a Christ analogy where Sotnikov dies to take our sins from us, and we should praise and worship him for that. We even get a halo around his head, it is that thick.

For a suffering population asked to make sacrifices for a greater good, I suppose it serves a purpose, but as a viewer I could think of a thousand movies I would rather watch.