#and zhenya's death running through the woods. hoping to save rita. rita killing herself anyway

[malachitezmeyka]

No wait I'm actually not done talking about how The Dawns Here Are Quiet (1972) fucking broke me and I need to rant about it a bit more

Just.. the concept in general? One senior sergeant and 5 young girls barely out of school, the oldest of them only 20, having to hold off 16 German paratroopers? Knowing how low the odds of success are and yet understanding that they have to do it anyway? Being overcome with fear and hopelessness but keeping at it because you have a duty to your homeland? How fucking terrifying that would be?

And then, the girls dying off one by one. Liza, sent to warn the rest of the troop of the germans, dying in a swamp as she wasn't careful in where she was stepping, all because she was rushing to get there as fast as possible to hopefully save the lives of the other girls. But her death being in vain, because Sonya was stabbed and Galya was shot before her demise was even discovered. Only two girls and Vaskov the sergeant left, not even having the chance to mourn the fallen because the germans are still there. The sergeant ordering the girls to retreat because he wants at least them to survive. Them disobeying, remaining in those woods until the end. Some of the germans were dead too, but at what cost?

The absolute fucking tragedy of what happens next, Rita being wounded by grenade shrapnel causing Zhenya to go off with nothing but a rifle, singing at the top of her lungs as she runs through the woods to get the germans to follow her away from her friend. But of course she could never survive doing that for long and is killed. Vaskov finding her and telling Rita, who understands that with the rest dead and her wounded only Vaskov can face the Germans but he refuses to leave her, so she asks him to look after her little boy and kills herself

Vaskov burying the girls and finding the germans, shooting some, screaming at the remaining that they were facing only five young girls and still weren't able to pass by them, and now he will kill all of them himself and that he doesn't care if he will be judged for it because he will avenge the girls he was supposed to protect

The epilogue, thirty years after the war ended, showing Vaskov and Rita's son, who he adopted just as asked, placing a memorial plaque in those same mountainous woods of Karelia and being discovered by a group of campers the same age as those girls were, all their joy and laughter immediately fading as they stand in respect and mourning too for the girls they weren't even alive at the same time with but who were part of the reason they can now spend their youth camping and having fun instead of fighting on the front lines

And that's only the plot, if I started talking about the symbolism and cinematography too I would be here typing all day. But I will mention the genius decision to make the entire movie in black and white except for the 'modern day' scenes of the campers and Vaskov hallucinating the girls after their deaths as he mourns, as he threatens the germans, and as Rita's son places the memorial. Genius, I tell you

Just... The Dawns Here Are Quiet (1972). That's it that's the post.