Customer Reviews
sheer poetry 
2008-11-09
Ivan's Childhood is sheer poetry. A young boy spends his childhood in the wasteland and dark days of War, meanwhile haunted by his memories of a time of peace and love with his mother. Tarkovsky's inventive editing and imaginative camerawork makes the film feel like a dream and the photography captures images that fill the frame with art! This is a rare cinematic experience!
Ivan's Childhood 2008-08-17
Ivan's Childhood is Tarkovsky's first main film, and his most conventional. It takes place during WW2 in Russia. We follow 12 year old Ivan who is a scout for the military. His dark everyday reality is contrasted with his dreams which are light and joyful. The film contains images and themes that are typical of Tarkovsky, like the sometimes diffuse border between dream and reality. Also, the landscape is not a typical war scene but rather more dreamlike.
The transfer of the DVD is excellent and the details of some images are incredible. Also, the introduction by Vida Johnson is really worth listening to.
Remarkable First Feature 
2008-06-11
Is it possible to seperate this from the master's mature work, in some way? Certainly the context of its making is important; it is student work. But what student work! And to think that Andrei follows it. Whew! The story is fairly standard fare, a somewhat romaticising of the boy soldier, his heroism, his salutory patriotism. I believe it's the same lad who claims to have the secret of the bell-making in the majestic final stanza of,'Andrei Rubelov'. The murky claustrophia of the river and swamp, the echoing of white-truncked forests; birch, spruce?(all alien experience for this desert dweller!), these become familiar bits of the Tarkovsky lexion. Konchlovsky uses them too, in his epic, 'Siberiade'. But then they were co-students at the Moscow film school. Finally, I have this as part of the complete set of Tarkovsky's films; a gift from my eldest daughter. . The quality is great. The subtitling is as good as I've seen. And they're unexpurgated versions eg. the archival war footage of Nazi material was news to me. There's next to no information of who made this box set or where it came from, other than it's from China. You'll also find in the pack, 'The Steamroller and the Violin', a colour work also from student days, 1960. It has academic interest for me, but shouldn't be reviewed with the expectations he set in his great, mature work.
A stunning first feature 2008-05-08
This is probably Andrei Tarkovsky's most accessible film. It's a solid feature debut that ranks with Francois Truffaut's "The 400 Blows." Like Truffaut's masterpiece, "Ivan's Childhood" (a.k.a. "My Name Is Ivan") is a devastating view of troubled childhood and one of those movies you never forget. I'm delighted that Criterion has rescued this classic from home video oblivion and given it the first class treatment it richly deserves.
Another artistic movie from the master - Tarkovsky 2008-02-27
Tarkovsky has become one of my favorite directors because of the artistic, dream-like quality of his films. His movies are not for people looking for fast-paced, action movies. His character development and thought provoking aspects are excellent. But, it's the incredible eye for artistic detail that truly amaze me (and I watched a lot of films in general - and internation films in particular.) Highly recommended for someone who has an eye (and an interest) in film art of masterpiece quality!
black and white wonder 2007-12-18
The debut feature from the great Andrei Tarkovsky, Ivan’s Childhood is an evocative, poetic journey through the shadows and shards of one boy’s war-torn youth. Moving back and forth between the traumatic realities of WWII and the serene moments of family life before the conflict began, Tarkovsky’s film remains one of the most jarring and unforgettable depictions of the impact of violence on children in wartime.
A Different Slant on War Movies 2007-10-18
This film marks the debut of what was to become one of filmmaking's greatest directors, Andrei Tarkovsky. While he had already directed "The Steamroller & the Violin" as part of his graduation from film studies, this was his first foray into a full-length film.
What other reviewers do not note about this film is the interesting angle it presents on the theme of war. The movie's namesake, Ivan (a name selected to generically mean any Russian boy), is not simply an innocent who suffers the horrors of war, but is an aggressive, generally confident and committed scout, dedicated to eradicting the German presence in his beloved Russia. After some idyllic opening shots, we see the 12-year-old Ivan ordering around the military man he is put in the care of. The scene is distinctively striking, as is the subsequent narrative arc that traces Ivan's involvement as a scout along the front. If you are familiar with another excellent Russian war film centered around a young man, "Come and See" (by Elem Klimov), then you will certainly recognize some of the roots of that movie in this one.
In general, this is one of the most narrative-driven of Tarkovsky's movies. Later in his career, he seems to have raised the technique of making content match style to the highest pitch; here, the story is clearly dominating how he films his scenes, sometimes experimentally rotating the camera, utilizing defamiliarizing angles, and running alongside actors during tracking shots. One very notable difference from his later films is the speed of many shots. Here, Tarkovsky tends to opt either for a still camera in static scenes, or to quickly moving shots. There is very little of the excruciatingly slow ballet or creep-pans that mark his later work. This is not a merit or defect of "Ivan's Chilldhood," necessarily, but one can certainly sense a younger director exploring the possibilities of technique in this film in a way that his other films do not reflect.
It is interesting to note what one reviewer points out below, that Tarkovsky was not the original director for this film. It would be interesting to know if any footage from the original director is retained in the finished version. Visually, one might make a case for this considering how starkly different the filming is between Ivan's pre-War and during-War childhood are. The colors, the lighting, even to the point of looking colorized and somewhat artificial, make a very vivid contrast with the plain, stark black and white of the military encampment's interiors, or the gorgeous austerity of the birch trees. All the same, the contrast could still simply be Tarkovsky pointing out the differences of pre-War, and post-War childhood.
Throughout, there are numerous striking shots (the falling bucket, reverse shots filmed in water, the filming in the birch trees, a severe up angle on Ivan as he walks, and especially the particularly compelling final crane shot, where Ivan overtakes his sister and runs along the edge of the ocean), the acting is excellent, and the story is striking enough that it still deserves to be heard.
This is not Tarkovsky's "Mirror" or "Stalker" (both of which I cannot recommend enough), but neither should it be. Serious film viewers should certainly be familiar with all of Tarkovsky's work, and it would no doubt be interesting to start here, with his first film. Definitely worth viewing.
Death Wish 2007-09-14
This is a DVD to own. "Ivan's Childhood" is Tarkovsky's first and arguably his most famous film. Based on Vladimir Bogomolov's early novella, "Ivan" (that is, "John") (1957), the film achieved wide acclaim outside Russia. It was produced at the risky time when Premier Khrushchev's era was ending and fundamentalist Marxists were ascendant again, restricting freedom in the arts; it is, as one observer wrote, "one of the harshest, morally complex versions of the war in Soviet film." It won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival. With this debut film, Tarkovsky established an international reputation that has influenced many other filmmakers.
Except for this novella, Bogomolov is not widely known outside Russia. However, it was translated and anthologized widely around the world. Look for Bernard Isaac's translation into British English. It has the atmosphere of reality. It is punctuated it with references to real places, the Dnieper River, the town Gomel, where Ivan was born, and the Trostyanets death camp; even official Red Army and SS documents have an authentic flavor.
The novella is told in the first person narrative of a Red Army lieutenant. Ivan is about 12 and a "scout", or reconnaissance spy, sneaking across the swampy Dnieper River into the night and behind German lines. The war made him an orphan and filled him with maddening hatred and desperation for revenge. He has been with partisans, in a death camp, and wounded by friendly fire returning from a mission one night. The soldiers are amazed he's been through so much.
There is the pun, of course: Ivan's last name is Bondarev, Ivan Bondarev, that is, John Bond. In the story, it's an intelligence cover name. However, Ian Flemming's first James Bond novels appeared in the early fifties before "Ivan" was published. It may be coincidental, and probably only of interest to Western readers.
Writers often insert their own lives and experiences into their writings, and Bogomolov served in the Red Army in World War II and in intelligence. I do not know if Bogomolov based Ivan on any real person that he may have met or learned about. I guess we can only speculate about Ivan, yet a child working as a war-time spy seems plausible to me. After all, in the desperate chaos at the close of the war, Germany mobilized the Hitler Youth and insurgent units called Werewolves. There is plenty of historical evidence pointing to child combatants throughout history as well as in current events. We recall that Baden-Powell, who created the Boy Scouts, was a former soldier and spy, and the crafts of scouting are important reconnoitering skills used in war. The world is as morally conflicted as ever.
Though he argued with Tarkovsky about the way his story was filmed, like all authors, I think Tarkovsky's approach was correct, considering the demands and possibilities of the cinemagraphic medium. This Criterion Edition of the film is cleaned up with a high definition digital transfer. There is a new subtitle translation. The highlight of the features is the interview with Nicholai (Kolya) Burlyaev, who portrayed Ivan. He reminisces how he was cast at 14 and how the film was made.
The film follows the novella closely, though it takes a more objective viewpoint and enters Ivan's troubled dreams, which make striking imagery. It is tragic poetry whereas the novella is matter-of-fact. Here, Ivan is somewhat bratty and hot tempered. Though he is a child scout, I think the film suggests that he may not be the only one. He knows his trade-craft and takes it very seriously. Still, no one seems overly concerned (in either film or story) that a child is a war-time spy. Frankly, he insists on doing it. Ivan's only friends are the soldiers who want to care for him (after the war)or send him to school but do not object to his missions.
The film, shot on location at the Dnieper River, is pregnant with dramatic, almost heavy-handed imagery and symbolism. There is the first metaphor of crossing the river. Then there is the metaphor of the dead tree. It's his extraction point where Sgt. Katasonov waits for him to bring him ashore to safety. But, Ivan misses the rendezvous because of German patrols and must swim further away. Here, one metaphor abuts another. At the end, following Ivan's last mission, Tarkovsky re-introduces the dead tree metaphor as Ivan races laughing on a beach, perhaps in whatever kind of dream that may have come for him. There are other interpretations, and this one satisfies me now. At the end of the day, we have Bogomolov's poignant story enhanced by Tarkovsky's uncompromising, haunting vision.
Children of war 2007-08-23
Ivan's Childhood often amazes with the fluidity of its camerawork, its wonderful use of sound and its matter of fact depiction of war - not the moments of combat that make up only a tiny part of the experience, but the moments between, where people try to catch whatever they can, be it love, hope, memories or just sleep. It's a simple tale extraordinarily well told, and if the sudden leap in chronology at the end is jarring, the result is nonetheless very moving. Even the fantasy/memory scenes of a nature more vivid that the burnt out husk or swamps of war are beautifully handled, and it's easy to see this being a major influence on Spielberg's most underrated film, Empire of the Sun.
Very impressive indeed, it's a surprise to learn that the film was shot on an ultra-low budget because another director and cast had used up half the budget before their version was scrubbed, only for Kruschev's disapproval to limit the film's Russian release while it was conquering the arthouses worldwide.
Criterion's DVD includes good interviews with star Nikolai Burlyaev and cinematographer Vadim Yusov but doesn't include the Russian WW2 newsreel footage on the Russico/Artificial Eye PAL DVD.
a very nice film. 2007-08-11
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.
Ivan's Childhood releaed in the Soviet Union as Ivanovo Detstvo is about a boy of about 12 named Ivan, who assists Soviet soldiers during World War II. It is the first studio film by acclaimed director Andrei Tarkovsky.
This was first announced as an upcoming relaease by Criterion almost 10 years ago and is finally available. I have no idea the reason for the delay. It has some good scenes in it and is well photographed.
The DVD also contains interviews with cinematographer Vadim Yusov (who worked on Tarkovsky's other films) and the film's lead actor Nikolai Burlyaev who played the title role. Also included is an interview with Vida T. Johnson, who wrote a book about Tarkovsky.
