The Cranes Are Flying, Essay Example

While the movie is focused around a woman named Veronika, who is currently in a relationship with Boris, the son of a doctor named Fyodor Ivanovich.Veronika is a representation of how the war effected the lives of women in Russia at this time and how they were, in particular, effected by its upheavals.The plot is set to the backdrop of World War II, and presents how this war effected the lives of Fyodor, his family, and their relationship with Veronika.  This presentation is a dramatic and emotional personification of the war itself, and its relationship with individuals within society and throughout the world at large.

At the start of the movie, Boris and Veronika have a relationship, and Boris, who lives with his father, his sister, Irina, his mother, and Mark, their nephew, is soon swept into the war that is growing.As the war grows more near to their world, many people begin to take up the national standard of service and join the fight.  Fyodor’s son Boris soon joins as well, in order to defend his nationality.  Veronika did not wish for him to go.  While serving, Boris dies saving the life of a friend in battle.  His death presents a conflict that underlies the essential issues throughout the entire story.

Veronika and Boris’s family are not told that he was actually dead, and just that he was missing.While all of this has been going on, the Germans attack the Russian homeland in a frontal attack.  These attacks cause the people to hide in various places throughout the city.  At one point, Veronika finds, after a bombing, that the house her parents lived in had been destroyed.  Afterwards, because she has nowhere else to go, Fyodor has her stay with him and his family in their home.

After she moves in, she begins to spend a lot of time with Boris’s nephew Mark.  However, Mark had feelings for Veronika, although she doesn’t allow his advances, as she believes Boris to still be alive.  At one point, the two are alone together, and it seems that she is raped by Mark.  This leads to the two getting married, apparently due to a social obligation.  Fyodor and the rest of Boris’s family are unaware of what Mark did, though, and this drives a rift between them and Veronika.After this, the whole family moves in order to get further away from the approaching Germans and the war.

Eventually, Veronika and Fyodor find work in a medical clinic, where they help to take care of sick and wounded soldiers.  While Veronika works hard, Mark lives a relaxed and lazy lifestyle.  Neither of them seem to be happy with their lives, though.  Furthermore, Fyodor seems to still be angry with Veronika.  After he begins to yell as a soldier, and his anger is clearly directed at Veronika, her sadness becomes evident.  At this point her ability to cope with the struggles she has gone through comes to a dramatic turning point.

She is eventually seen about to kill herself by leaping to her death into the path of a train, however, just as she is about to do it, she sees a child who is about to get hit by an approaching vehicle.  She is able to save him, and finds out that he is lost.  She also finds out that his name is the same as Boris’s.  She decides to bring the child home and adopt him.  At the same time, there are dramatic changes with the rest of her family as well.

At the end of the movie, Fyodor eventually discovers the true nature of Mark, and what he had done to Veronika.  After realizing this, her relationship with the rest of the family ends up on a good note.  They eventually discover the true fate of Boris as well, although Veronika doesn’t believe it at first.  However, at the end of the movie, she hears it first hand from one of his friends, and is sad at the realization.  This is where the film ends, however, she hands a returning soldier some flowers, which seems to present a hopeful end to the struggles that were presented throughout the rest of the film.

The backdrop of war seems to give this film a tension.  As the characters’ lives are inevitably drawn into the effects of the war, it seems that they are at odds with a sense of despair.  The tragic nature of the film seems to be something that is expressive of how the national mentality probably was at the time.  This film is able to tap into a deeper sense of humanity due to the universal nature that is expressed in the commonality of how people’s lives were effected at that time.

The issues that are presented within this film, including the realities of how war effects all people, the social dogmas and intricacies of society, and how people can continue to hope and move forward despite hardship, are universal, and can strike a chord across political, social, and religious lines.  In this way, although the film seems to be expressed in a deeply dramatic fashion, it is also an expression of hope, and the desire to find happiness, even in a bleak and destructive world.

Throughout all of this hardship, the essential lack of information that the family has concerning the fate of Boris seems to be a primary issue that drives the plot forward.  While Fyodor seems to have a responsibility to Veronika due to the relationship that she had with his son, her eventual marriage to Mark seems to drive a wedge between his sense of honor and his sense of responsibility.  The movie, in fact, seems to come to its conclusion when Veronika, after all that she had gone through, is able to eventually discover the fate of Boris.

The acting of the main character, Veronika seems to give this movie life.  While, at the time, many movies with women were often presented in a much less complex way, this character seems to be a representation of some of the issues that women in that place actually dealt with at that time.  Furthermore, her circumstances, and the attempt of the movie to address the issue of rape at that time seems to be an unprecedented look into the fundamental problems that were facing women at that time.

One of the most striking things about this film is the realization that, while it was made during the 1950s in the Soviet Union, it is able to move beyond the bounds of political and social commentary, and instead focuses upon the individuality of war and its effects on people within the context of these implications.  These effect not only the personalities of the people within the story, but also the relationships and the way these individuals relate to one another while the events play out.

The relationship between Veronika and Fyodor, in fact, serves to transcend the basic barriers that were present within the social boundaries of the time.  While he seems to have a fatherly attitude towards the woman, this attitude is marked with stress after the events with Mark.  In turn, these relationships incur specific reactions from the other characters as their attitudes are effected by the circumstances of the war.  These circumstances are presented through a dramatic emotional and personal introspection, which bridge the divide between the individual and the rest of the world.

These reactions that the characters within the film have to their situations, Mark’s dark nature coming forth for example, create a sense of dilemma for the imagination in how it regards the psychological effects that are presented within the background of the storyline.  This presents a sense of personalities being put on trial.  The character’s understanding of who they are and their places in the world are being put through a process of questioning.  This was true of many societies at this time throughout the world.  The effects of the war presented a sense of dramatic change for many people and their ways of life.

This expresses the ability of the writer to implement their progressive ideas concerning the roles of women in society.  Rather than a fundamental condemnation of her circumstances, she is painted as a dramatic heroine.  This expresses a desire of the filmmakers to provide a commentary concerning an issue that they felt was important.  By doing so, they are able to effectively create an atmosphere that calls into question the regard that social customs and norms have for the circumstances of the individual.

The atmosphere of the film is established through the implementation of dramatically emotional shots of character’s reactions, as well as the cinematic scope of the internal dialogue that these create.  The ability of the actors to successfully create the feeling of emotion helped to create a sense of dynamism that served to move the story forward.  This was a new and creative way of expressing the mental perspective of the individuals within the setting of the story in a clear and effective manner without sacrificing the integrity of the film itself.

The synthesis of these varying elements, war, family, and women’s social standing, within the context of a single film represents the creator’s ability to creatively implement their own representation of the issues in the light of dramatic expression.  The connections that are made with the overall fate that the world endured after the war presents their understanding of the creative potential that went into the making of the film.  This is presented in the way that the individuals within the family relate to one another throughout the film.

While the ideas of war and family might, at first glance, seem to be at odds, the presentation of conflict within the structure of the family, and the fragmenting social order, seem to present an abstract expression of the war itself.  By looking at how the individuals within the film reacted their situations, an image of how the world as a whole was affected will show the changes that were made.  These changes present the growth that the individuals and the world went through during this time.The fragmentation of the family, and the eventual reconstruction along new lines, presents an indication of what the author was attempting to express within the context of this film.

The struggles that Veronika went through throughout the film are a reflection of the same struggles that were going on throughout the rest of the world.  Many people were disassociated with the greater order of the world, and were unable to come to terms with the lack of information that they had concerning the state of the world at large.  People at the time didn’t know, or begin to understand, the ways in which the war would change the world, and how these changes would affect them individually.

In this sense, her inability to find out what happened to Boris presented the connection that he had with the past.  Her connection with him seemed to represent her connection with her life, before her parents had been killed and her home essentially destroyed.  This life had all but been destroyed, and when she finds out the true fate of Boris she did not want to believe it for this reason.  She was still holding on to this past world.  When she finally finds out his fate, she breaks down, I think that this is her finally coming to terms with the fact that her entire world from before the war was gone.

At the end of the movie, the entire family had changed, as Mark had sold out the family, and Fyodor accepted Veronika as his daughter, or at least forgave her for what had happened with Mark, the fundamental structure of their family was changed, but they were, overall, closer to one another because of it.  Although they eventually make amends, the tone seems to indicate that the world will move on and rebuild despite all of the sadness, sorrow and destruction that it had gone through.  This seems to present the filmaker’s view that, while the world and the people went through a great amount of turmoil, the survivors would have to pick up the pieces and move forwards with the reconstruction of the destroyed structures.

References

Kalatazov, M., Samohilova, T., Batalov, A. V., Rozov, V., Moskovskai?a? kinostudii?a? “Mosfil?m.”, & Criterion Collection (Firm). (2002). The cranes are flying: (Letyatzhuravli). United States: Criterion Collection.