10 Gut-Wrenching Moments In War Films

The definition of an anti-war film and the face of insanity. Based on the real experiences of Ales Admovich, Come And See is not a comfortable film. It doesn't hold your hand and reassure at the end of the day good will triumph. It is a venture into the cruelty humans are capable of committing towards one another. The whole movie can be one gigantic gut-wrenching moment from its relentless bleak.

The film follows the slow descent into witnessing first hand the horrors of man from the perspective of a 13-year-old boy named Florya. Initially romanticizing the glory and honor of war, he naively joins a conflict that would shatter any conception of valor in conflict and come to face with chaos and breakdown of civility.

Evading encounter after encounter clinging tenaciously to any bit of humanity left in his soul and escaping death within inches of his life, he's smacked in the middle of a calculated massacre. After nearly escaping getting killed when attempting to steal a cow and surrounded by Nazi troops, he's rescued by a Russian farmer helping him find refuge.

The humane gesture is short lived when the town is then meticulously herded and forced into a barn. He gazes from inside the barn as people topple over one another screaming. Managing to escape, he lays beside the laughing Nazi soldiers as they burn the barn and massacre the entire town in one swift move.

It's shocking and beyond defining. The words 'brutal' or 'gut-wrenching' escape articulating the type of horror in this scene. As conflicts turn over and life begins anew, moments like these act as a reminder of how close we stand to the precipice of darkness.