5. The Red and the White (1967)
A cold hearted film about the Russian civil war. It's a film that never lets you engage with the characters, it's rather full of execution scenes seen from a distance most of the times. There's no definite narrative and no explanation of who what where why? No way to feel which on is the good side and which one is the enemy or villain if you will. You don't know who to root for but isn't that the point of war? Both party looses a lot during war and when you think about it, it's war you have to root against. The Red and The White depicts it perfectly. Another great aspect of the film is the camera movement and the long shots. Shots are so long, you sometimes forget where they actually started and the camera is always keeping us at a distance. And, that is another point I find real clever about the film. It's always from a distance but you feel the pain somehow. Doesn't that always happen with us? We, who are not living in war ridden countries can even see the obnoxiousness and redundancy of war while watching from distance. That's exactly what we do in this masterpiece by one of the greatest Hungarian directors, Miklós Jancsó.