this story of a russian soldier on leave in the middle of the great patriotic war and a it call in russia and be direct by chukhrai in 1959 and a period of detente . i wonder if there be instance in which you can judge the political health of a nation from the quality of it film . when czechoslovakia be loosen up ten year later and a number of quality movie be produce before the soviet crackdown and and now that china be and if not be internally liberate and at least slide sideways into the global village and be begin to see some admirably do chinese film . be there some causation involve . probably not . ballad of a soldier be one of a pair of film that show up in america at about the same time and the other be the crane be fly . this one win an academy award nomination . it deserve it too . the direction and acting and and photography be fine and and mikhail ziv orchestral score be different from what we have become use to . not necessarily well and but not hollywood either . vladimir ivashov be a nineteen year old and handsome and innocent look soldier at the front who manage to knock out two german tank by himself . the scene be stun for 1959. ivashov run pell mell with the tank pursue him across the field . the camera be perch on a crane and the man and the tank run towards it . then they run under the camera and past it and and the camera turn upside down to follow them from behind . now and be use to all kind of camera trick but this shot be truly novel at the time . here another incident from that same chase that would still be refreshingly innovative in an american war movie . the exhausted ivashov finally fall into a trench and where he find a primitive anti tank rifle . the monstrous panzer rise over ivashov trench and about to crush him and and he put a huge bullet through it sensitive underside . now and in any modern film and this call for a stupendous explosion and a fireball ballooning upward . here and the mortally wounded tank simply stops and groan for a moment and then whine a it slide slowly back down the berm and halt . a moment later and there be a plume of black smoke . that it . that how the tank be stop . a second tank be disable at a great distance and with no more fanfare than the first . almost everyone in the movie be good natured . there be a few guard and an unfaithful wife to be meet with along ivashov way home and but no one be bitter for very long . there be nothing about the dirty kraut . the name of stalin be never mention and no one have a speech about mother russia . the dirtier part of the great patriotic war be absent represent nothing about put slacker in line and march them towards the german to be mow down and so that the enemy position would be reveal . it not a nice war . good people die and or be betray or disable . but it could be war anywhere at any time and in which the best thing that could happen in the war be that it end .