Ivan's Childhood Essay

The World War II set film Ivan’s Childhood, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, is one of the most influential, and lyrical war films ever made. The theme of Ivan’s Childhood is the various dualities that occur in the harrowing reality of war, reality vs. dreams, and the thin line between adulthood and childhood in these harsh realities. Tarkovsky conveys this theme through various camera shots and angles, and gives each scene meaning through these. For example, he used expressionistic camera angles in Ivan’s more terrifying dream sequences such as slow tracking shots through a birch tree forest, use of found footage, close-ups of Ivan, and the final fantasy sequence. There is a distinguishable difference between the real world from Ivan’s dreams

Ivan’s Childhood opens with a close-up of Ivan standing behind a tree. From changing the perspective from the tree, to the sky, then to the ground below, it establishes the connection that exists between the three. While the tree’s roots are firmly connected to the Earth, its branches reach upwards towards the sky. The tree also represents the theme of duality by being spiritual and physical at once. The scenes set around the white birch grove are physically connected to the scenes of the war, but emotionally feel removed from the tragedies of war. In a scene before the birch tree grove, it begins on a close-up of Ivan in an army truck crying after being yelled at for his stubbornness to go to school. This cut to a shot from a moving vehicle looking out at the muddy, colorless terrain by the military camp. This moving shot cuts on the same right to left movement to another slowed movement in the same direction, however, this one looking at the birch tree grove. Then after this scene it cuts back to the panning shot of the dreary mud terrain. This contrast of the mud terrain and tree grove reflects the duality between the horrors of war, and the escapist fantasy