Well, what do you know: I saw another Andrei Tarkovsky picture after all. Admittedly, I missed his name when I selected it, but there's no missing the bleak imagery on the poster for what has also been marketed as My Name Is Ivan. You can tell right away that Ivan does not have an enviable childhood.
Ivan is 12 but rarely acts that young, being eager to serve the USSR against invading Germans. His motive: revenge for his family, as we see in flashbacks. His advantage: small stature for spy stealth. His disadvantage: age-based lack of respect as an equal by adult allies, who'd rather send him to a military academy than to the front. He spends a lot of time waiting impatiently for a task, seemingly forgetful that there are much worse things in war than boredom or a sense of futility.
Lest you think Ivan the only focal character, some scenes involve only adult soldiers, especially the few he gets to meet between missions. Only in a few of those scenes do we see a female character other than Ivan's bygone mother or sister. Specifically, Nurse Masha garners the interest of two men associated with Ivan. (I'm left to wonder whether she had a bigger or smaller part in the story on which the film is loosely based.)
I assure you that the picture is not as harrowing as the last Soviet war flick I watched, partly because few scenes have many characters and basically none have graphic violence. Even the hanging bodies don't appear in detail. That said, Ivan has a decidedly worse ending than Florya. Let's face it: He could do recon for only so long before the enemy started to take notice....
At a mere 94 minutes, IC might be the Tarkovsky piece I find most watchable, in spite of its relatively high tragedy level. Do I recommend it? Maybe if you feel like seeing a dark portion of history through a youthful lens.
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