This film is a cinematic masterpiece. The way the camera captures sharp closeups & individual faces, even in chaotic fast-moving scenes like the ending, gives us a tight human connection even though the themes are vast. Here's the ending scene where the heroine Veronika is looking for her fiancé at the end of the war.

MAJOR SPOILERS (but nothing you haven't figured out halfway thru the film)

The Cranes Are Flying 1957 Final Scene

The speech he gives at the end is fantastic, rousing and inspiring. He's talking about the fallen soldiers who defended against the invading Nazis. Only now 65 years later, the Russian army is the one that's invading and destroying civilian life just like the Nazis did in this film (WW2).

The speech: "Towns and villages will be rebuilt, our wounds will heal. But our fierce hatred of war will never diminish! ...We will do everything to ensure that sweethearts are never again parted by war, that mothers need never again fear for their children's lives, that fathers need never again choke back hidden tears ... We shall live not to destroy but to build a new life!"

I love this movie but Putin effectively sh* all over that final speech, the whole point of the movie. It kinda leaves you with a doubly cynical view of the world. Total downer man.