Alas, Germany unexpectedly invades the Soviet Union. Mark volunteers for the Red Army, along with his friend Stepan (Valentin Zubkov). Mark does not enlist, is never drafted, and credits this anomaly to his prodigious skills at the piano. Veronika's parents are killed in a Luftwaffe bombing. The devastated and homeless Veronika moves in with Fyodor. She is seduced (and possibly raped) by Mark. They are wed, but Veronika remains unhappy as the family is forced to move further East to escape the advancing German front. Meanwhile, Boris dies saving the life of an annoying harmonica playing fellow soldier.
How others will see it. Soviet audiences enured to decades of censorship were astounded by the frank themes of the movie. Mark dodges the draft, marries his cousin's fiancée, lives with free room and board in her father's house, cheats on his wife, and mostly gets away with it, despite a mild comeuppance in his final appearance.
Kalatozov won the Golden Palm at Cannes, a rare prize for a Soviet director. Of course, the Western audience, especially today, is limited for a subtitled black and white film, but the movie ranks among the best known Soviet flicks from the 1950s. At imdb.com, the film scores more highly with men (8.1) than with women (7.2).
Women over 45 grade it just 5.6, with 60% of those votes a scant 1 out of 10. This is undoubtedly due to the unromantic second half, where Veronika marries a man she doesn't like or love and continues to pine for Boris until his death is definitively confirmed. Women over 45 want Boris to magically appear in the final scene and walk off with Veronika.
How I felt about it. The Cranes are Flying is clearly an excellent film. Several important factors contribute to its significance.
First among them is the director, Mikhail Kalatozov. Kalatozov was obviously both talented and skilled, but spend more than a quarter century in film obscurity because his vision of filmmaking did not correspond with that of Soviet director Stalin. Finally, Stalin, one of the great mass-murderers of political history, died and the power struggle for his successor was won by the more liberal Khrushchev.
Kalatozov was allowed to make the present film, which would have likely been banned during the Stalin regime. Thus, Khrushchev was the second factor.
Also vital is the presence of beautiful and charismatic Tatyana Samoylova as the star and heroine of the film. In 1957, Samoylova briefly became a film star in the West despite her confinement to the Soviet Union and its satellite countries. She was nominated for Best Foreign Actress at BAFTA, and was also featured in Kalatozov's next film, the highly respected though less acclaimed Letter Never Sent (1959).
The fourth important element to the quality of The Cranes are Flying is its writer, Viktor Rozov, who was also responsible for its source play. The story and screenplay are excellent, though the happy ending the audience craves is never delivered. Such an ending would not be appropriate, anyway, given the 20 million casualties the Soviet Union suffered during World War II, 50 times that of the United States.
Finally, we have to recognize the innovative cinematography of Sergei Urusevsky, which amazed Western technicians of the day. The most famous scene is Mark's death, with its spinning camera and remarkable dream sequence. Early hand-held camera scenes with Veronika and Boris on the move are also mesmerizing.
Alas for Kalatozov, he made films sparingly, and only his last four efforts are fairly well known. The Red Tent (1969) disappointed the faithful, but I Am Cuba (1964) and Letter Never Sent retain a strong following. The Cranes are Flying is generally regarded as his masterwork.