The Red and the White (1967) from Hungarian director Miklós Jancsó is another one of those European art films that sacrifices a sizable chunk of its potential entertainment value in the name of artistic integrity. It employs a narrative technique that greatly strengthens the effectiveness of its antiwar message but which also limits the films appeal for a mass audience. There is no central protagonist or even group of protagonists. Each time you think a particular character might be emerging as the protagonist, he gets killed. There is also no evident “right side” as this film presents the conflict and hence no one for whom to root for or against. As the conflict rages, one side or the other briefly gains the upper hand, only to lose it later. Both sides commit brutal atrocities when in the position to do so and suffer similarly from atrocities when defeated. It is not particularly evident, in this film, what each side hopes to gain by the conflict (though the “Historical Background” below provides that context). Many times, it is difficult to tell one side from the other. Consequently, the viewer is left with the impression that it’s all pretty absurd and horrendous. This is humanity stripped to its most barbaric condition. In short, the film pretty much depicts war for what it is – madness in which nothing much very important is ever really settled other than who will be in the position to dominate and perpetuate atrocities. The average viewer wants to see good guys win while this film offers neither good guys nor winners.

Historical Background: The last Russian czar, Nicholas II, had foolishly undertaken war with Germany in 1914 (as part of World War I), but his military was overmatched and the Russian capacity for production not up to the task of supplying both the military on the front and the needs for the workers back home. Many Russians blamed the misjudgments on the influence of Rasputin (see Rasputin), a religious zealot of dubious sanity but with great influence over the czar and, especially, the czarina. The Russian military suffered one terrible defeat after another, losing over 2 million men and another 5 million injured. The Russian military had long propped up the Russian aristocracy, which was cruel and unpopular with the persecuted Russian serfs, peasants, and laborers. Taking advantage of the sorry state of the Russian military, Soviet workers led by the Bolsheviks launched the Russian Revolution in 1917, failing to gain control in the so-called February Revolution (February by the old Russian calendar but March of 1917 by the new calendar), but succeeded in the October Revolution (initiated on November 7th, 1917 by the new calendar). Once in charge, the Bolsheviks withdrew Russia from World War I, signed a peace accord with Germany (that cost them dearly in land, industry, and people), relocated the seat of power from Petrograd to Moscow, and organized the Red Army (named after the color of the Communist flag) to defend the Bolshevik government. For the next two to three years (1918-1920), in what became known as the Russian Civil War, the Red Army battled anti-Communists, called the Whites, who were ineffectively supported by France, Britain, Japan, and the United States. The Russian peasants, however, supported the Reds because they feared that victory by the Whites would reestablish the aristocracy and serfdom and their newly acquired lands would be seized. The external support for the Whites proved to be something of a blessing in disguise for the Reds, allowing them to characterize their war effort as resistance against outside invaders. The Civil War raged on twenty-one different fronts and was one of the bloodiest wars in human history. After defeating the Whites, the Red Army retook some of what had been ceded by the peace accord of 1917 – the Ukraine and Georgia, but Finland and the Balkan States successfully defended their independence.

The Story: The story opens with a group of White cavalrymen charging along a road toward the camera position, swinging sabers and shooting rifles as such men are wont to do. This is the region of the Volga River where the Reds are supported by Hungarian volunteers (who hope that the Reds, if victorious, will then help the Hungarian peasants revolt as well). Two White soldiers are approached by Red cavalrymen from a distance. One manages to hide among some bushes while the other is forced to surrender and is duly executed.

The action now shifts to a monastery, which each side has taken from the other repeatedly, and which is used as a kind of field house and hospital by whichever side controls it. We watch as Red soldiers execute a number of captured White soldiers, first requiring them to strip. A few of the captives are merely stripped and allowed to run off into the fields. Shortly, however, the monastery is captured by a unit of White cavalrymen and infantry. The Red soldiers, who moments earlier had been executing prisoners, are now rounded up. One White officer picks four of the Red soldiers for target practice. One by one, he has the poor fellows run off across an open space to be shot down. Another large group of Red prisoners are told to remove their shirts. The Hungarian volunteers are separated from the Russians and the former are told that they will be given one chance to leave and go home because this is not their war. The Russians, on the other hand, are told that they will be given a fifteen minute head start and then hunted down. Most of the exits from the monastery are obstructed, however, and many of the prisoners fail to even get out of the monastery before the fifteen minutes have elapsed. A handful of the captives manage to escape in various directions and become sport for a hunt by the White cavalry. We follow a pair, for a while, that includes an Hungarian and a Russian. They manage to find their way to a hospital, operated by female nurses, and to intermingle among the patients.

Civilian women and the nurses are generally abused by both sides, though no outright rapes are depicted. A contingent of White cavalry come upon a farmhouse while pursuing one of the fleeing Red soldiers. The ensign in charge orders the man of the family killed as the mother and two adult daughters look on. The ensign then orders the two older women to undress the youngest daughter for his entertainment and to wash her so that she will be clean when he rapes her. Another contingent of White cavalry approaches that includes more senior officers. The ensign is summarily court marshaled on the spot for crimes against civilians, given a few seconds to pray, and shot. The nurses at the hospital receive unwanted advances from men on both sides, occasionally even expressing willingness. A Red officer, near the end, orders the nurses to file past, picks his favorite, and forcibly kisses her, complementing her on her kissing ability. In another scene, a Colonel of the White Army briefly kidnaps eight of the prettiest nurses, makes them dress up in fine gowns, and has them entertain the troops by dancing a waltz.

The White cavalry discovers that there are Red soldiers commingled with the White soldiers at the hospital (the head nurse adamantly insists that they are all simply “patients”). Even under threat to her life, she refuses to separate the White from the Red. The White officer manages to intimidate one of the other nurses into making the distinction. The wounded Red soldiers are laid out in a row and an officer begins executing them. As he is about halfway down the row, a contingent from the Red Army swoops down on them and kills the White officers before they can complete the executions. The officer in charge of the Red unit orders the execution of the nurse who had identified which soldiers were White. Later, these “victorious” Red soldiers encounter a much larger contingent of White soldiers and march against them in formation until they are all mowed down.

Themes: The primary theme, of course, is the utter stupidity and futility of war. To the participants, it must have seemed like the most important event of their lives – that their country’s future hung in the balance. From the point of view of non-Russians, looking at the senseless killing with little knowledge of the particular issues, it all just seems idiotic. The Reds won but some seventy-five years later Communism in Russia collapsed on its own accord. Had the White won, the old Russian aristocracy might have collapsed under the weight of its own pernicious influence of Russian life in about the same amount of time. To some extent the course of history is inexorable. Most of the suffering and indignity of war is in vain.

There is an interesting secondary theme as well. One issue made evident in this depiction of war is the “luck” factor determining who survives and who doesn’t. We see it in the beginning, when one soldier manages to hide in the bushes while another is executed. One simply happened to be closer to the bushes as the enemy cavalry approached. Later, we see captives arbitrarily divided into groups, some executed and some allowed to flee. In the monastery, some take wrong turns and are cornered like rats while some flee in directions that provide possibilities for escape. In another scene, a large contingent of soldiers are running across a field and being shot at from a plane. Some are killed while some make it. Once the surviving group has reorganized, the commanding officer discovers that many have dropped their weapons while running. By way of punishment, he has them line up and then counts off every fourth man for execution. At the hospital, half the wounded Red soldiers are executed just before the Red relief squad arrives to save the other half. All of this gives a kind of new meaning to the phrase “Russian roulette.” War is reduced to some mad game of chance being played by crazy men.

Production Values: For this film, Jancsó features a lot of long takes facilitating by graceful tracking shots, reminiscent of Tarkovsky. There are many broad panoramic vistas that give a sense of the vastness of the Russian landscape and the smallness of men in comparison, reminding us that Mother Russia will persist whatever the stupidities of men and however many soldiers scurry about like so many ants

Most of the killing is highly stylized and impersonal, not the graphic blood and gore type that predominates today. This adds to the impersonal nature of the conflict. The executors and their victims seem interchangeable and are, in fact, interchanged from one scene to the next, as the vicissitudes of war dictate. Dialog is mostly limited to orders being barked out by one officer or another, again emphasizing the dehumanizing nature of violent conflict. These men exist merely as cogs in a war machine. Since none of the participants are put forward as protagonists or in any way that makes us especially care about one or more of them, we share, as viewers, in that depersonalized perspective. At the same time, this lack of depth of character portrayal is contrary to what viewers typically look for and value in movies, diminishing the entertainment value of the film.

The performances were all very realistic, though no one performer had a standout role, due to the film’s style. None of the performers were ones that I recognized from other films nor do they have film credits in other top level films.

Bottom-Line: The Red and the White has one of the most effective antiwar messages that I’ve encountered in film and, frankly, it is a message that can never be reinforced too often. There’s a bit of a catch-22, however. The emphasis on the depersonalizing and dehumanizing nature of war deprives viewers of one of the chief joys of watching film – identification with one or more of the characters. The very attribute of this film that enhances the integrity of its message also diminishes the audience for its message. For those interested in how film style can be used to strengthen a message, The Red and the White will provide an educational experience. For those mainly interested in entertainment, The Red and the White will prove less satisfactory. I give it five stars for skillful film technique but just three for entertainment, for a net rating of four stars. The Red and the White is in Hungarian with English subtitles and has a running time of 92 minutes.


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You might want to check out these other excellent films from Hungary:

Colonel Redl
Mephisto

Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age