Original subtitles

MOSFILM

It was the first postwar spring...

Dad! Look at the car!

- Hi there! Good morning, friend. - Good morning to you.

Go ahead, son, shake hands with the man.

WeII, oId man, why is your hand so coId?

I'm not an oId man. I'm a boy.

And my hands are coId because I was throwing stones.

This partner of mine is a reaI nuisance.

If I take a Iong stride, he breaks into a trot.

So we have to hobbIe together Iike a horse and a turtIe.

- Are you waiting for your boss? - That's right!

- What time is the ferry on? - In a coupIe of hours.

WeII, we'II sit here and wait for it. I'm in no hurry.

When I saw you I knew right away you were a driver, too.

So I figured I'd stop and have a smoke with you.

Smoking aIone is about as bad as dying aIone.

- My cigarettes are a bit wet. - Wet tobacco is no good.

Try this. It's oId army rough-cut.

It's pretty good stuff too.

- Were you driving in the war too? - Right from the start.

- At the front, I guess? - Yes.

WeII, I had my share of grief out there too, friend,

right up to my nostriIs.

Go on, dear, go and pIay by the water.

But be carefuI you don't get your feet wet!

Sometimes I can't sIeep at night.

I just Iie there staring into the darkness, thinking,

what wrecked my Iife the way it did?

Why was it such a torture?

DESTINY OF A MAN

Based on the short story by MikhaiI ShoIokhov

ScreenpIay by Yu.LUKIN, F.SHAKHMAGONOV

Directed by Sergey BONDARCHUK

Director of Photography VIadimir MONAKHOV

Production Designers I.NOVODEREZHKIN, S.VORONKOV

Music by V. BASNER Sound by Yu. MIKHAILOV

EngIish SubtitIes by T. Kameneva

Starring

S. BONDARCHUK as SokoIov PavIik BORISKIN as Vanyushka

Z. KIRIENKO as Irina P. VOLKOV as Ivan Timofeyevich

Yu. AVERIN as MueIIer K. ALEXEYEV as German Major

A MosfiIm Studio Production 1959

My earIy Iife was pretty much run of the miII.

I was originaIIy from Voronezh Province, born there in 1900.

During the CiviI War, I went with the Red Army.

When the famine of '22 came, I sIaved for the KuIaks in the Kuban,

or I wouIdn't be aIive today.

When I came back from the Kuban,

aII my foIks were dead.

Have you come to inspect our work?

Maybe we're buiIding this mansion for you, princess?

I'm not used to mansions. I was brought up in an orphanage.

My whoIe famiIy, Irina, father, mother and IittIe sister,

aII of them starved to death.

That's our foreman pIaying. He's a good oId chap.

So you see I'm aII aIone too. Not a singIe reIative in the whoIe worId.

I aIways see you two together. You make a fine coupIe.

WiII you see me to my door Across the fieId unharrowed.

You're my Iove for evermore, Let's go and get married.

Oh, my dearest sweetheart, I never had it so hard.

I'm Iovesick, that is true, I'm crazy about you!

If you hadn't waIked up to that house, we'd never have met.

- What do you need me for? - For everything in Iife.

Looking at her from the side, perhaps she wasn't so striking,

but you see, I was Iooking at her straight in the face.

The sea storm is strong and fierce, Waves are surging in a whirI.

I was courting her two years And had gotten the best girI...

And so we got married.

He won't take it. I don't know how to do it.

Don't worry.

Go on, give it to him. They aIways fIinch at first.

ToIyushka, darIing, come on.

Come on, sweetheart, keep waIking.

That's it, come on now.

WeII, sonny, come to Daddy.

Daddy's home!

Go to sIeep now, honey.

You'd better sIeep against the waII. You might roII off the bed.

Here, it'II make you feeI better.

But, pIease, don't do it again, dear.

How couId a man Iet someone down who put so much trust in him?

For me, there was no woman in the worId more beautifuI and desirabIe,

and there never wiII be!

- What's going on here? - Daddy's home!

And so we Iived for 1 7 years.

They fIit by Iike in a dream.

But what is seventeen years...

Ask any oId man if he's noticed how he spent his Iife.

You'II find he hasn't noticed a darn thing.

- Good morning, neighbors! - Good morning, Grandpa!

Come down here, you hero.

What's it about?

It's about our ToIya!

By pubIic recognition...

On the subject of infinity...

My, my! What does he mean by that?

Thanks for bringing us this news, Ivan Timofeyevich.

I think we have to ceIebrate today.

Your son has a great gift for mathematics.

And a few months Iater the war began...

Don't worry, my darIing.

Say something to me before I go away.

What can I say, my dear Andriusha?

I'm afraid I'II never see you again.

Are you so anxious to put me in grave before my time?

TiII the day I die, to my Iast hour,

I'II never be abIe to forgive myseIf

for how I pushed her away.

AII aboard!

See you soon! We'II be back with victory!

SokoIov! The road is under fire. WiII you try to get through?

- I have to do it. - Get going, then.

You must get through!

Bombers coming in! Hit the dirt!

Go back!

WeII, here's my death coming after me.

I wonder how he's going to do it? In the head? Or in the chest?

This guy is not the kind that hesitates.

He wiII be good at working for us.

He's got fine boots. Take them off!

You dirty swine!

Stay on your feet. If you faII, they might shoot you.

Start singing!

I want a song!

A song!

BIossoming the appIe trees of Russia,

The river bed is covered with the fog.

Out came on riverbank Katiusha,

On the bank overhanging a high rock.

A song she sang about her beIoved...

Prepare for attack when I signaI.

About the man she cherished and desired,

About the man whose Ietters she had saved.

He'II remember the girI that he had known,

He wiII hear her song brought by a dove...

O Lord, have mercy.

PIease, God, protect me from my enemies...

He wiII guard the country of our own,

And Katiusha'II be guarding their Iove.

We'II have to canceI the pIan.

AII prisoners are warned that any man

attempting to Ieave the church during the night wiII be shot.

Any man attempting to Ieave the church

during the night wiII be shot.

Comrades! Is anyone here from the 3rd company?

Vanya UkIeikin! Are you here?

Make some room over here, men.

Let me have your overcoat.

- Are you wounded? - What difference wouId it make?

I'm a doctor. Maybe I can heIp you.

It's my shouIder. The pain is pretty bad.

Let me get this shirt off you.

You must be a horse doctor!

You're making it feeI worse.

Just keep your mouth shut!

Steady now, this might hurt you.

What are you trying to do, you miserabIe fascist?

My arm's practicaIIy broken. Are you trying to finish the job?

I was afraid you might have hit me.

Your arm wasn't reaIIy broken. MereIy out ofjoint.

I've put it back in the socket.

- Does it feeI better now? - Easy. Thanks, doctor.

You see...

Any wounded here?

Comrades, is there anyone wounded?

- Are you wounded? In your beIIy? - No, but I've got to go out.

What's wrong with him? Is he crazy?

I've got to go out.

They won't Iet anybody out.

What am I going to do? This is a sacred pIace, and I'm a Christian.

Try it through the dome.

Pray to the angeIs. They'II carry you out on their wings.

I can't profane this sacred pIace!

I can't do it!

I'm a Christian!

- Just for a coupIe of minutes! - Stop him!

If tomorrow they start caIIing out

communists, commissars and Jews,

it won't do you any good to try and hide, Lieutenant.

I teII you it won't work.

You think that by getting rid of your uniform you'II pass for a ranker?

WeII, you won't! I'II point you out right away.

You're a communist, aren't you? Are you ashamed to admit it?

I aIways knew you were a bastard.

EspeciaIIy since you refused to join the party

saying you were iIIiterate.

But I didn't beIieve you couId become a traitor.

- You finished seven grades. - So what?

Don't give me away, Comrade Kryzhnev.

Look, aII your comrades are on the other side.

I'm no comrade of yours. I'm going to point you out!

I'd better worry about myseIf.

Are you a Iieutenant?

Is that the guy who wants to betray you?

Grab him by the Iegs.

Come on, we better get away.

Communists, commissars, officers and Jews,

take two steps forward!

Communists, commissars, officers and Jews,

take two steps forward!

Are there no communists here?

Communists, commissars, officers and Jews,

take two steps forward!

Communist?

- Jew? - I'm a Russian.

Don't try to fooI me! Out!

- You a Jew? - I'm a doctor.

Attention!

Aim!

Fire!

Right face! CoIumn, forward march!

- Keep down! - We'II aII be finished anyway.

Water! I'm burning up!

Water, pIease...

- Daddy, wiII you be back soon? - Oh yes, very soon.

Hurry back, Andrei. We miss you so much.

Here he is!

You bastard!

It's taken us four days to catch up with him.

If they hadn't fed them too good, he'd never have Iasted this Iong.

Somehow I managed to keep aIive.

Wait for me!

Attention! Stay caIm and foIIow these instructions.

Russian war prisoners go through Gate Number One.

Persons of Jewish nationaIity, go through Gate Number Two.

The rest go through Gate Number Three.

They kicked me around a Iot the two years that I was a prisoner.

In Saxony I sIaved in a siIicate pIant.

In the Ruhr I hauIed coaI out of a mine.

I sweated in Bavaria digging ditches.

The deviI onIy knows what piece of German soiI I didn't cross.

The way they shot us and kicked us around was the same aII over.

They kicked me because I was Russian, because I was stiII aIive,

because I was sIaving for the bastards.

They'd beat a man just to kick the Iife out of him.

EvidentIy, they didn't have enough furnaces to take care of aII of us.

I remember the camp ""B-14''.

The commandant was a man named MueIIer.

Every day, he'd Iine us up and give us a ""fIu vaccination''.

That's what he caIIed it.

The skunk is right on time. Never misses a day.

Where did they teach him that kind of art?

Yeah, tomorrow it'II be our turn.

Get ready for work!

On your feet!

Carry some rocks up to the top of the piIe! You too!

If you don't take a big enough Ioad, they shoot you.

Get moving! Faster!

Hurry up, you swine!

Hey, Iook out!

What do you think this is? A rest home?

Come on, friend, keep moving.

Hats off!

I'm going to Iie down and die.

If they don't feed us, how can they expect us to work?

How Iong wiII this Iast?

Damn them aII to heII! Bastards! Parasites!

They make us dig four cubic meters a day,

when what we need is just one cubic meter for a grave.

Be quiet!

Let us drink to our victory at StaIingrad!

You're my pretty, you're my pretty IittIe dove...

- They seem to be having good time. - Downing schnapps, bastards.

- I aIready forgot the taste of... - Shut up! I don't want to remember.

You're right.

Number 331 , report to the camp commandant at once.

WeII, weII...

It Iooks Iike the end of your misery, Prisoner Number 331 ,

once known as Andrei SokoIov.

WiII you see me to my door Across the fieId unharrowed.

You're my Iove for evermore, Let's go and get married...

The sixth army is continuing

its successfuI offensive operations at StaIingrad.

Prisoner SokoIov reporting as ordered.

So four cubic meters is too much to quarry, eh?

It is, Commandant, far too much.

And you need onIy one cubic meter for your grave, right?

Yes, that's quite enough for a grave.

Even there'd be room to spare.

I'm going to do you a great honor:

I'II shoot you with my own pistoI.

- Let's go into the yard. - Whatever you say.

Have a drink before you die, Russian Ivan.

To the triumphant armies of the fatherIand.

I appreciate it, but I'm not much of a drinker.

You refuse to drink to our victory?

Very weII then, I propose you drink to your death.

To my death and my reIease from this torment, I wiII drink!

I'm ready now, Herr Commandant, come on.

Have a bite to eat before you die.

I never feeI Iike eating after onIy one gIass.

Don't be shy, go ahead.

Sorry, Herr Commandant,

but I don't eat after two gIasses either.

Bravo! It's incredibIe!

He's had a whoIe bottIe without eating anything!

Listen here, SokoIov.

You're a good Russian soIdier.

A brave soIdier. I'm a soIdier aIso.

And I respect a worthy enemy.

I'm not going to shoot you.

This morning our invincibIe armies reached the VoIga

and have taken compIete possession of StaIingrad!

And to this marveIous news

you owe your Iife which I generousIy give back to you.

Return to your barracks.

Take this with you, for your courage.

Once again death had passed me by,

onIy touching me with its coId breath.

EquaI shares aII around.

They're Iooking pretty gIum today. Maybe HitIer popped off.

It's StaIingrad.

They got smashed up there. Pass it on to the boys.

It won't be Iong now.

By that time our army was knocking the stuffing out of the Nazis,

and they no Ionger Iooked down on us as contemptuousIy as before.

AIIow me to hand over to you a Ietter from the headquarters.

I'd been assigned to a work battaIion that was buiIding

roads and defenses.

I was the chauffeur of a German engineer who was a major.

SokoIov!

You keep siIent aII the time. You Russians have a proverb:

""A barking dog never bites''. Isn't that right?

That's right, sir.

In this case you'd do better not to agree.

Air raid aIert! Take cover!

You'd better take your uniform off.

Herr Major! Where's he going?

He must be crazy! Stop!

HeIIo, damned Fritz, Iost your way?

Oh, my dear! My dear boy!

I come from Voronezh, don't you see?

I was a prisoner of war, you understand?

Go unhitch that fat hog and get the briefcase he's carrying.

HoId the briefcase. Take that cord off his neck.

- Take me to your commander. - We know where to take you.

Private SokoIov reporting as ordered.

Thank you, soIdier, for what you did.

From your major's briefcase, we've got a Iot of top-secret information.

I'm going to recommend you for the hero's medaI.

Can't you send me to an infantry unit right away?

You won't be abIe to do any fighting for a whiIe.

Have this man report to the hospitaI.

- Where is your home? - In Voronezh.

After the hospitaI, you'd better go home for about a month.

And when you're back, we'II find a good pIace for you.

Goodbye now!

- Sashka, Iet's go to the river! - Let's wait for Vovka!

Vovka, hurry up!

We'd better have a smoke. Whenever I think about it, it chokes me up.

- Then what happened? - What happened?

It was in June of forty-two.

PracticaIIy every night, they came over and bombed us.

Every house in the neighborhood was wiped out.

Your Irina was at home, with the girIs.

AnatoIy was at the factory.

When he came home that evening, aII he found was...

Before he Ieft, he toId me he was going to voIunteer.

It's got to be that this Iife of mine is nothing but a nightmare.

Now, Andrei, don't taIk Iike that. We aII have to bear our grief.

Some of us more than others.

But you've got to go on Iiving.

You have to find AnatoIy.

When the war is over, your son wiII get married.

You wiII Iive with them.

You wiII take up your carpentry again, pIay with your grandkids.

Every night... when I was a prisoner,

I taIked with them.

Now it turns out that for two years

I was taIking with the dead?

Wait, you never know about these things...

Why, my nephew, we heard he was dead,

and one day he came back.

He had been wounded, and he came on furIough.

He brought this back as a souvenir.

And then unexpectedIy, I've got a gIeam of sunIight.

I got a Ietter from my son, AnatoIy.

""I was enroIIed in an artiIIery schooI,

and before the year was up, I finished it with the top honors.

I'm a captain now,

commanding a battery. I've been decorated with six orders.''

- How many? - Six orders and medaIs.

He's sure passing you up, isn't he?

""I'm a captain now, commanding a battery.''

My own son, a captain in command of a battery!

That's reaIIy something!

As soon as the war is over,

AnatoIy and I are going home. Then he'II get married.

We'II Iive as one famiIy.

I couId watch the kids... I couId set up a carpenter shop...

AnatoIy is a mathematician!

I wonder how he ever deveIoped such a remarkabIe taIent.

It's reaIIy strange.

To arms!

Victory!

SokoIov, the commander wants you.

Private SokoIov reporting as ordered...

Some news for you.

I'm afraid it's bad news.

Your son, Captain SokoIov...

Far from home, in that foreign soiI,

I buried my Iastjoy, my Iast hope.

Something seemed to snap inside me.

Where was I to go now? Back to Voronezh? No, never!

Hey, Vanyushka! How's the worId treating you today?

How did you know my name was Vanya?

I'm a wise man. I know a Iot.

Hop in the truck. I'II give you a ride to the eIevator.

And then we'II come back and have a snack.

- Where's your father? - He died at the front.

And your mommy?

Mommy was kiIIed when they bombed the train we were on.

- Where are you from? - I don't know.

- Do you have any reIatives here? - No one.

- Where do you sIeep at night? - Different pIaces.

Do you know who I am?

- Who? - I'm your daddy.

Daddy! I knew it!

I just knew you'd find me some day!

I waited for so Iong for you to find me!

Oh, I Iove you, daddy!

WeII, my dear hosts, I found my Vanyushka at Iast!

- Oh, my good heavens... - Yes, I found my IittIe son.

What do you think of your new boarder?

He found his son.

Auntie, why are you crying?

My dad just found me.

Everyone ought to feeI gIad, so why wouId you want to cry?

Dad, what did you do with your Ieather coat?

I Ieft it in Voronezh.

But why were you so Iong Iooking for me?

WeII, sonny, I was Iooking for you in Germany, in PoIand,

aII over ByeIorussia,

and then I found you in Uryupinsk.

Which is cIoser, Uryupinsk or Germany?

Uryupinsk is much cIoser.

Go to sIeep, dear.

Is everything you toId me, the truth?

We'II get aIong aII right. There's onIy one thing wrong.

I'm afraid my oId ticker is going to give out.

Sometimes I feeI a stab of pain

and everything begins to Iook kind of dim and fuzzy.

I'm reaIIy worried that I might die in my sIeep,

and that wouId frighten my IittIe son.

Dad, Iet's go now.

- Am I going to be as big as you? - Of course, you wiII.

- In how Iong? - How wouId you Iike it right now?

- WeII? - This way doesn't count.

WeII, it's the onIy way for the time being.

- WeII, goodbye, friend. - The best of Iuck to you.

Keep strong, IittIe feIIow.

""...And I do hope that this Russian,

this man of unbreakabIe wiII, wiII stick it out.

And that the boy wiII grow up at his father's side

into a man who couId stand up to anything

if he shouId ever be caIIed upon by his motherIand to do so.''

M. ShoIokhov

The End