Ballad of a Soldier

Ballad of a Soldier was an easier watch in comparison to the most recent film we watched, Mirror. Though throughout the movie I was thrown for a loop here and there but it was still easy to follow and understand what is going on. Compared to other films we watched this didn’t have much of a Socialist Realist feel at all. Those films seemed to try and convey a message of propaganda and how the great the Soviet Union is more than the director conveying a specific message of his own or simply entertaining the audience with a story. Socialist Realist films were not as much about the individual but more about the Soviet people.  They didn’t want individuals rising above one another. In Ballad of a Soldier we see the focus on an individual, Alyosha. Throughout the film he is busy helping anyone he gets the chance to which hinders him getting home on time since he only has a short time to be home. He meets this girl, Shura, and they seem to have a connection of being more than just friends. To my surprise, we never really see that blossom into anything. They go their separate ways to never see each other. The ending also caught me off guard. He only gets a few minutes to see his mother and then he has to go and that is the end. It didn’t feel like a sad ending but it certainly didn’t seem like a happy one either. He goes out of his way to help others and doesn’t seem to be rewarded in the end. He falls in love and never gets to see the girl again and he only gets to be home for a few short minutes.