After the icy brilliance of such late movies as Solaris and Mirror, one might expect that this first feature, a wartime drama (with a youthful hero suffering the horrors of combat), might lack the incandescence of his later work. But this is anything but the case; the film remains a remarkably powerful experience, both moving and as visually striking as any of Tarkovsy's later work.
All the tropes and motifs appearing in Tarkovsky's subsequent work can be seen in his first feature, a profoundly moving and unsettling account of a WWII orphan.
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All the tropes and motifs appearing in Tarkovsky's subsequent work can be seen in his first feature, a profoundly moving and unsettling account of a WWII orphan.
The title is ironic as Ivan's childhood is abruptly curtailed by the death of his parents. Motivated by hatred for the Germans, twelve year old Ivan scouts behind enemy lines, reporting on the position of enemy troops for the red army.
It's here any semblance to the conventions of the war film end. The action takes place during the lull between campaigns and offensives. There are no battles or fighting. The director instead draws attention to the relationship between Ivan and the two soldiers, Capt. Kholin and Lt. Galtsev. Kholin having decided 'war is not for boys' nonetheless allows Ivan to embark on one final assignment, at which point the action moves forward some years to the wars' end and we discover what happens to Ivan.
The scenes around the army camp are punctuated by dream sequences which convey much of the films meaning through a system of codes and symbols. The well for example appears in the first dream, also the blasted landscape when Ivan encounters the madman. In the second dream sequence with his mother, Ivan both looks into and looks out from the well, his hands playing upon the water's surface. The well could be read as a yearning for reunification with the maternal, literally achieved in the final dream sequence when he runs along the sea shore.
Throught the film are symbols of life such as butterflies - even in the horror of war Tarkovsky seems to be saying, is the eventual promise of new life, resurrection, birth. This can be seen in the way one of Tarkovsky's recurring tropes is used - the meeting of fire and water. For example in the scene early on when Ivan, having bathed, is laid to rest by Galtsev, a slow camera pan takes in the flickering brazier, then the sound of water dripping.
Another of Tarkovsky's preoccupations - the transcending power of art, is alluded to in a scene when Ivan looks through a book of woodcuts, taken aback to learn they were made by Durer, a German.
Kolya Burlyev who plays Ivan went on to appear as a bell ringer in Tarkovsky's next film Andrei Rublev and makes Ivan's Childhood the film it is by his range of expression which goes from petulance to something I can't find words for, a haunting presence which has remained with me for some time. This is a film I've returned to many times.
I'd recommend this if you've found Tarkovsky's other films baffling yet intriguing. Also if you enjoyed Zvyagintsev's The Return this is an absolute must see. < less
