The Red and the White (1967) YIFY - Download Movie TORRENT

Characterized by visual stylization, elegantly choreographed shots, long takes, historical rural settings, and a lack of psychoanalyzing. The Red and the White is a very interesting well-made movie from director Miklós Jancsó. Set during the Russian Civil War (1917-1922), the Russian-Hungarian film, was originally commissioned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia in which the Bolsheviks aggressively seized authority. However, the director chose to set the action two years later in 1919 to show the Communist "Reds" Army in a firefight with the Tsarist "Whites" Army over the control of some hills near the Volga River. While, the movie remains one of the director's most widely seen and admired films; this movie is very hard to follow. The reasons for this, is because the film lacks a central character. Instead, we follow, a number of nameless characters from both sides on their quest to survive the battle. There is one character played by Andra Kovak who kinda ties the whole film together, appearing in the first scene and the last, however, he was never really assuming a central role. Supporters of the film point out that the director aim was to prevent the audience from feeling emotionally identify with any one side. He didn't want anybody to seem like they were winning in the battle of ideologies. Like a chaotic stalemate game of chess. Both sides are just killing each other without any strong offensive. We see, both forces try to take control of an area, only to find himself or herself, having temporary peace, before being execution, a minute later, by the next invading force. While, the movie doesn't show blood. The film hardly has any scenes, where somebody wasn't shooting at somebody. Indeed, the movie had no rest point, from the violence. I guess, it's supposed to tell, the audience. That no matter, how much control, you think you have, there is always, somebody gearing up to take your place. While, the repetitive action makes it a hard sit. It was done on purpose, to show the meaningless nature of war. It's one of the most violent movies, I have ever saw, pre-1970s. The movie also really surprised me on how much nudity, it had for a pre-1970s film. None of it was portray to be sexy. Those sexual abuse scenes were made to be disturbing and degrading. It really haunting imagery on the horrors of war. What I like about the film is while, the list of characters is ever, so changing, the landscape barely moves. It's always set around the beautiful surroundings of the Volga River. You really get to see the large scale of the battle. I also like how the film rejects, the war film convention and clichés. For example, key moments of action, such as the deaths of certain characters are sometimes shot with a long lens from a distance rather than in close-up, making it unclear what has happened or who it has happened to. It's give the movie a feel of mystery. Not everything needed to be explain. The only problem with it, is that it's hard to tell the different between the 'white' army compare to the 'red' army. There were times, where I was often confused, on what army, I was, now watching. It didn't help that the director's choice to use black and white, made everybody look the same. I guess, the choice was made to turn it b/w to serve a deeper viewer's immersion in the historical settling, or to show, that despite your political colors, everybody in war is a shade of grey. The artistic advantage of black and white did help heightens the impact of the film's violence. I love the fact, that the film used a lot of long take unedited movie footage. Since the film has barely any cuts, it transcribes the screen time as if it's real time. While, this movie might seem lawlessness, it does have one strong message show by the actions of a few characters, throughout the piece, such as the one refuses to aim properly during an execution, the one who stops the rape of a peasant woman and one stops the execution of their own soldiers for "cowardice". The message: "a man can fight and still be human." A very strong message, indeed. While, the film might look upon as communist propaganda to the untrained eye. It's barely was. While, yes, Whites are presented in a much more unfavorable light than the Reds. The movie hardly felt heavy-handed political preachy. During the Cold War, Jancsó was often criticized for being formalist, nationalist and generally against the Socialist ideology. A frequent theme of his films is the abuse of power. His works are often allegorical commentaries on Hungary under Communism and the Soviet occupation. It was no surprise, that the film was not well received in the Soviet Union. It was first re-edited to put a more heroic spin on the war for its premiere and then banned, afterwards. However, in Hungary and the Western world, it was more favorably received. The film was even listed to compete at the 1968 Cannes Film Festival, but sadly, the festival was canceled due to the events of May 1968 in France. Overall: This is an Astounding piece, might be a bit hard to watch to some viewers, but if you get the chance to. Try watching it. It might change, your opinion on war.

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Polaris_DiB 8 / 10

Epic, in a contained and concise way

War--chaotic, insane, inhumane, useless, and... calmly graceful? We of the Hollywood diet like our plates full with spastic editing, grippingly colorful images, and fast approach, but none moreso than with war movies, with Tom Hanks surrounded with shrapnel suddenly going surreal on us, or Martin Sheen slowly falling into mental chaos whether in the midst of battle or trapped in a room away from it. What we are not used to are long, slowly moving traffic shots as pretty much faceless groups of soldiers alternatively gain and lose ground, each performing their own atrocities and each making themselves no better than the others, but each the subject of a listless and uncaring camera that seems just as ready to focus on a blade of grass calmly waving in the wind as a troupe of men about to be slaughtered.To add to this effect is the fact that half the time, the viewer hardly begins to establish his or herself with a character before the character is removed from the story. It definitely works to show the arbitrariness of war... it might not work so well with ingratiating the audience with the movie. With no characters to care for, well... sometimes it's hard to care so much.But otherwise it's brilliant, magnificent, and... sort of epic, in a contained and concise way. What I want to know is how they pulled off the sound. The sound is always very spot on to the activities going on, but are so perfect, even in long shots, that it makes a complete mystery of where they possibly could have put the mic. Fascinating, in case the rest of the movie isn't.--PolarisDiB

Reviewed by ironhorse_iv 8 / 10

The Red and the White

1967 [HUNGARIAN]

Action / Drama / War

The Red and the White

1967 [HUNGARIAN]

Action / Drama / War

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Movie Reviews

Epic, in a contained and concise way

A great anti-heroic film depicting the senselessness and brutality of the Russian Civil War. A very powerful piece.

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