The ending


I've seen this film more times than I can remember and the ending always gets to me. I think it's a great ending but I don't know why it affects me so much. What do you think?

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Effect you how? Meaning the brutality of what the lady did?

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Not just that but when Jason Patric leaves the Afghan rebels and the face he gives Steven Bauer after he looks at the tank commander's clothing.. I don't know why that always gets to me.

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I've seen it many times.

Here's why the ending affects me:

Ending happens with no words spoken - just that haunting
Mark Isham music.

Two men who have grown to respect, perhaps even love each
other (in a male bonding way)have to separate. They dwell
in separate worlds and cannot "be together."

Afghanistan is a lonely, searing, spare and haunting
place. Try that same scene amongst a jungle like in Platoon,
or gritty urban battlefield as in Blackhawk Down.

Somehow the whole scene and music reinforces that war
doesn't just kill people and sunder their lives,
it also brings them together in wonderfully strange,
but awfully fleeting ways.






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The point about the ending is that he is not a traitor, he is loyal to his country but he had to fight his commander because the alternative was death, but after that is over he has to get back to his comrades- who wants to be trapped in Afghanistan for god's sake?

To me it is about the nature of patriotism, you have mad people who claim to be patriotic because they want power - like the commander- and you have people who have to fight them, if only for self preservation.

Love the cleched fist, Communist salute!

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It's the opposite of "Dances With Wolves", another Kevin Reynolds-directed film. Costner's character takes his bride and gets outta Dodge; Koverchenko goes back to face the music of his superiors, even though he already knows not only that 'tune', but that of the reality of the scenario he just endured.

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Yes the film is not just about War it is about humanity.
Koverchenko says he is trying to be a good soldier in a rotten war. He was a patriot and a russian/soviet.
It did not mean that he agreed with the war or why he was there and his real enemy in this case was Daskal.
Once Daskal was dead and the helicopter was above he had a choice, stay with the Mujahadeen and life on the run or return to his way and the army.
He realised he had accomplished his badal/revenge and so chose the latter.

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Maybe he felt betrayed by the Mujahadeen: Taj promised him they would let the 3 Russians escape, but suddenly, Sherina appears with Daskal's bloody clothes!

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Well Taj did seem pretty pissed when Sherina came back with Daskal's blood-soaked uniform so i don't really think its betrayal.

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You are right. That's why I wrote that maybe Koverchenko felt betrayed; I never said that Taj actually betrayed him... It was a misunderstanding among them, the same way you misunderstood me.

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Even Koverchenko told Taj "I don't understand you" before Sherina 'deposited' Daskal's uniform at their feet. And I'm certain that Koverchenko went back to the Soviet Union fully knowing he'd be either imprisoned or summarily executed for his deeds, but was OK with it as long as he can get the story out. At that time, he seemed in a position to be willing to sacrifice his life for the truth.

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pcventures is 100% on the money. i couldnt stop thinking about that ending for days. something so haunting and emotional about it.

imagine after escaping death, seeing all that horror, switching sides, and then once again being given a chance to choose your identity/loyalties, out in an environment more alien than most of us have ever known.

the really sad part is what a mess afghanistan still is. all this violence and atrocity brought nothing good to either side of the conflict (the soviets lose, afghanistan get taken over by the taliban and remains the world's heroin captial).

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I think he left for the simple reason that he couldn't live the completely different lifestyle of Afghanistan. He doesn't know the language, the culture, and staying would make him a traitor. He just wanted to get home and get it over with. Also, the Mujahedeen live by the gun and die by the gun, and when he saw the woman return with Daskal's bloody uniform, I got the sense that he just didn't want live such a violent life.

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The ending basically says that in order to b a patriot/loyal to ur country...u do not have to stand by and watch wrong/immoral things happen.

he was loyal to russia, although he couldnt watch atrocities happen.
him and taj, were united by their Badal (revenge) against Commander Daskal...
once that was done....when he realised that it was over, and that his home was russia... he chose 2 go back.

moustafa tries 2 shoot him, coz he thinks he's showing his true colours... but Taj stops Moustafa, coz he knows that korvechenko is not a traitor, he is loyal to his homeland, just as Taj is loyal to his family and homeland.

Even though the 2 had come together and bonded (Taj having forgiven him)... he realised that at the end of the day, the both were from different sides.

As for sherina...
Pashtun women r often just as strong (mentally and physically) as pashtun men. Although Korvechenko had asked for nanawathi(mercy)...Daskal had not.. and she got her Badal(revenge) for the murder of her husband-to-be.
After seeing the results of which, Korvechenko realised he would he would never be one of them.

Afghanistan IS a haunting place. so many have died defending this country they love so much. Yes, its lonely, its barron, its desert....but it is their motherland, and they would die for it.

I love the music at the end... it puts chills down my spine.

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I like Daskal's pause as he sees the fork in the road from the very start of the film.

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Yep. I know what you mean. Everytime I see that particular scene, I was imagine him thinking "Oh, man! If I had listened to my driver in the first place, none of this would have happened!"

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i think he was showing that 'all men are brothers'

and that war is a crime

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