A very moving story, loved the simple and elegant camera sequences as well.

Striking use of light and composition coupled with an intelligent script lift this film far above the usual war-time weeper and turn it into a piercing study of the human heart. Kalatozov uses the camera as an artist uses his brush, treating us to some of cinema’s more amazing sequences.....an attempted seduction during a night-time air raid; a dying soldier’s vision of the wedding he’ll never have; a woman quietly grieving her dead lover in the midst of a joyous crowd....the list continues, and it is impressive. Free from the overt government propaganda of earlier Soviet films and staunchly avoiding maudlin sentimentality, “The Cranes are Flying” remains a powerful and mature work fifty years after it was first released.

The movie succeeds because it does what it does very simply and well. Still, there's some flair in the cinematography - Squirrel really earns her name the way she does. Some of the best scenes in the movie are ones with the characters in motion. There's also whimsy in places, but the actors carry those scenes easily.

What a marvelous creation: poetic, heart-breaking, original, visually arresting. It deals with people making difficult choices in difficult times.