Ballad Of A Soldier Literary Analysis

Ballad of a Soldier was a movie that was accepted worldwide, even the United States, and critically acclaimed to be an astounding movie that shows a softer side of Soviet Russia. The movie was released in 1959, at this time censorship, although not completely, was loosened. This loosened reign of censorship was due to the fact that Stalin was dead and no longer in power. Many works still had to be government-approved. The movie is set during WWII, but doesn’t really focus on it throughout the movie, except the first ten minutes.

The genre or theme of this movie is love and all types of it. Throughout this whole movie you see all forms of love and how strong it can be. You will also see a transition between the love genre/theme and the genre/theme of the struggle everyone faces and endures during the times of war.

In my opinion, the first form of love that is shown in the Ballad of a Soldier is when the young soldier named Alyosha, asks the general to let him go visit his mother to fix her roof instead of getting a decoration for taking out two tanks. Even during war he’s still thinking of his mother and how he could help her. This is a love between a son and his mother.

The second type of love is between a soldier going home to his wife from the war, where he lost a leg. He loves her too much to burden her with his disability and thinks that she’d be better off without him, but later changes his mind because his love for her exceeds this silly notion and he realizes he couldn’t live without her.

Next is young love. This love grows and is shown throughout the rest of the film. It is between Alyosha and a young girl he meets on a train, named Shura. Although they go their separate ways in the end and don’t realize until it’s t...

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...erything else contributed as well. This black and white film stood out due to the beautiful lighting and cinematography. For example, when Shura is gazing out the train window and the wind is blowing her hair back, away from her face and the lighting is so perfect that it looks like a picture that has come to life. Ballad of a Soldier lets the story of this soldier and his journey speak for itself without adding too many details and sounds. It’s simplistic.

This movie broke through all war anxieties. In fact, it made it easy to forget that WWII was happening during the time setting of Ballad of a Soldier, even when a bridge gets blown up. It was by no means a noir film, but a light and hopeful movie. The viewers also forget that the narrator has already told them how Alyosha’s story ends in a not so happily ever after way. This just shows how well the film was made.