Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Ivan’s Childhood follows young Ivan through his experiences with WWII. After the death of his family, Ivan Bondarev joins with the partisan forces, but is eventually caught and sent to a boarding school. Ivan hate being at the school and is quick to run away. He then joins up with an Army unit under commander Gryaznov, and he is put to work as a spy. Because he is young and small, he can sneak around on the battlefield more easily and gain important knowledge for the cause. Ivan is hardened by his experiences in the war. Where some of his dream sequences we experience show him as a happy, carefree child, this is in direct contrast with the Ivan we see working for the military. Most of the men in the army unit, such …show more content…
Much of the film deals with the individual and human experiences of war. Ivan himself is not a good Socialist Realist character when he refuses to go to military school, and disobeys different orders. Some elements in this film we have seen in other films/literature also appear throughout this film. There is a somewhat strange love triangle between Masha, Kholin, and Galtsev. This sub plot between these characters is like what we saw in The Cranes Are Flying. The dynamic between Masha and Kholin is like the dynamic between Veronika and Mark. At times, Kholin makes advances on Masha (such as kissing her amongst the birch trees) that doesn’t seem consensual. This is another element that is also not Socialist Realist. Kholin, being a Soviet, should be a respectable man, but he feels creepy when he interacts with Masha. We have also seen many characters yelling for “Mama”. Ivan, in his dream sequences with his mother before she is killed, yells “Mama”. We heard this same scream when Shura from Ballad of a Soldier. This terror and cry for a mother reminds us that these characters are still vulnerable even if they are facing the war.
A lot of Ivan’s dream sequences and his experiences of horror are categorized by Tarkovsky’s camera work. Many tight and quick zooms onto faces are used to indicate violence or death without being too brutal. During these scenes, there is also a lot of instances where the camera is spinning or shaking.