'The Red And The White'

The quintessential anti-war movie. Proposed as a celebratory film for the 50th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, Miklos Jancso instead made a stunning, poignant film showcasing the pointlessness and barbarianism of war.

It's pure. Nothing else stands in the way of the futility of war. There are no characters to get attached to and no plot. The plot, instead, is war. Side A vs. Side B. Whoever kills the most wins.

Then again, nobody really knows who is on Side A and who is on Side B. I watched the entire film and never quite grasped who was who and who was fighting who. Or why.

The film is foreign and distant (literally and figuratively on both accounts), which supports the general idea that war is the dumbest thing ever.

Speaking of, you'd think warring sides would create different uniforms. The British had it right 200 years ago with the red coats. You'd never mistake that with the French, Spanish or Prussians. Without a doubt, I would end up shooting at someone on my side if I were in war. Too little time to decide because I'd rather it be them than me.

I would like to go back and talk with these different soldiers and ask them whether they would still fight if they knew A) that they would lose and it wouldn't matter that they died; or B) that fighting over an ideology or way of thinking was truly worth dying and killing.

We always go back to World War II: There was a real evil and a real threat. People signed up, fought and died to stop both. Noble? Maybe. Something worth dying for? Probably.

But look at the Russian civil war. Communists vs. Tsarists. One ideology versus another ideology. Thoughts, essentially, against thoughts. If a civil war took place every time to factions of people didn't agree, we'd be in perpetual civil war.

The Tsarists would lose the civil war. Communists gained control and ruled for another 80 years before capitalists wound up outspending them, Chernobyl happened and the regime fell.

Was it worth dying for those Tsarists in the first place. Was operating under an unfair totalitarian regime where you starved all that much more awesome than an unfair Communist regime where you starved?

For the Communists, knowing that within a short 80 years your form of government would prove completely bastardized and feeble worth putting your neck on the line?

I would most guys would've voted to stay at home.