Andrew Quient

The story is told through the viewpoint of a major in the Red Army in World War Two. He sees a human being who has been destroyed in war, and who in the same outward form, is miraculously reborn as the ideal soldier, a single-minded and skillful killer. Even when the war has ended, this ideal killer refuses to accept that his enemy is vanquished, and believes that one day, in one year or a hundred years, his foe will reappear. He believes he must be ready to face him once again. He is a metaphor of what war does to the humans who have created it. In a mysterious epilogue, an undead Hitler asserts that war is the natural state of humanity, that war never began and will never end. To him the human condition is one of constant struggle, and war is not an anomaly, but an eternal and murderous contest for supremacy among human tribes. The struggle enables ordinary humans to commit and justify monstrous acts. Sadly, I know that this assessment is accurate. The film is not perfect; the theme could have been conveyed more coherently, but the bitter message comes through.

One of my favorite films of all time. See it.