1920 - Die letzte Schlacht

'The Battle of Warsaw 1920' is one of those European films that ends up so (relatively) expensive that the filmmakers can only look at the world's best producer of big-budget blockbusters for inspiration. Sadly that ends up being the Americans.

Which is not to say that big-budget American films are all bad, but somehow foreign blockbusters seem to always learn the wrong lessons from them, and end up as Roland Emmerich movies. Like other foreign films I've seen (Chinese ones are especially guilty of this) Battle of Warsaw has several of the old Emmerich characteristics: fractured plotlines with multiple characters and side plots, crowd-pleasing, chest-thumping patriotic ambitions, goofy humor amidst what should be tragic. In this case I did enjoy it all more than I really care to admit, despite many absurd flaws. It's one of those movies where, if you enter with the right mindset, it will keep you grinning throughout.

Despite that there are two fatal flaws to this film and they come down to narrative and tone. The 'main' story is the romance between Polish officer Jan and cabaret singer Ola. During the post-WW1 Russian encroachment into Europe (sound familiar?) Poland was always going to be the focal point of conflict, so the military sends Jan, along with a large Polish troop and on the exact day of his wedding, to back up the Ukrainians and hopefully keep the Russians out. Jan himself seems to have a certain, semi-ironic sympathy for socialism, which quickly gets him into deep trouble with his commanding officers. Then the invading Russian forces attack...

A naive soldier becoming disillusioned with Soviet ideology while his new wife in Warsaw is led to believe he's a traitor---this is actually the core of a really great story, but the movie has too many other things going on. Jozef Pilsudki, the real-life leader of Poland at the time, is played by Daniel Olbrychski in many poorly connected scenes that are meant to add historical and tactical context to the battles shown in the movie, but are too fractured to succeed. These code breaker guys get a good amount of screen time. There are a lot of cabaret dance scenes and a bizarre subplot involving a lecherous older officer. Ola ends up joining the army with a bunch of other women. The different factions of Ukrainians, Cossacks, and Russians become a little hard to keep track of after a while. The movie is trying to do too much, cover too much ground, and as a result just shoots itself in the foot.

The second issue I mentioned was tone, and this one is the real doozy. The entire first half of the film, despite treating devastating historical events, plays like an absurd comedy. When it's satirizing Soviet revolutionaries this works: Adam Ferency gives a scenery-chewing performance as the vile ex-Cheka officer Bukowski, adding to the film a lot of color which evaporates once he's gone. (Similarly to R Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket). The scene where the Soviets pull unwilling peasants aside to form a liberated 'Revolutionary Committee' has a humorous irony, and the occasional cut to Vladimir Lenin expounding grandiose plans to take over all of Europe is a real hoot. The crudeness of the Russian invading force is accurately realized overall (by many accounts they really did just pull their pants down and take dumps in the corners of whatever building they were staying in) but this film is not supposed to be a comedy, even a dark one. There's a rape scene that's rightly portrayed as something horrific, but when it's followed up with another comic Bukowski sequence and then culminates in a sick punchline, the tonal whiplash starts to derail the film. The second half of the film nearly drops the comedy entirely in favor of frenetic battle sequences, which are gory and brutal when you can tell what's happening. There are some nice touches, but these scenes are too disconnected from the main story to work.

Maybe what makes this movie the most disappointing is the pedigree behind it. Several decades previously director Jerzy Hoffman had made the greatest Polish epic film of all time: Potop, or the Deluge. That film is renowned for its story (from Nobel Prize-winner Henryk Sienkiewicz's novel) and an iconic duel scene rightly considered one of the best in film. There is a duel scene here as well, but it's almost a parody due to the rapid cutting and shaky camera. These noxious techniques carry over into the battle scenes; cinematographer Slawomir Idziak had already collaborated with Ridley Scott at this point and that might be why the patented Scott action style intrudes into the film. Idziak himself is actually one of the best DPs to ever lens a film, as evidenced by his work with Zanussi and Kieslowski at least, but the overall look of this film is over-saturated to the point of unreality. He still manages to conjure up some phenomenal shots using his usual play on contrasting colors and lighting, but they're always interspersed with others that look cheap or fake. Maybe since this the first Polish film shot with 3D cameras there were some unforeseen technical issues that led to this.

Slow, boring, predictable, messy, long. It was a great subject to have made a much interesting and historic film than this shamble where we have singing, dancing, humour, war, terrible acting, all in one.

Don't waste your time....

How come, every time I wait for a good polish movie about some episode from Poland's history, I end up being seriously disappointed? Every time. With this movie being notable confirmation of this rule.

Battle of Warsaw. One of the most important events in Europe's or maybe even world's history. A tragic struggle, held on the very extremes of hope, justly called by some "Miracle at the Vistula", won by a thread against all odds. One would think such event would deserve an epic piece of cinematographic art. I thought so too. A movie was made at last. Why I'm not happy? First thing I despise is the lack of focus. Not the optical one – I despise the lack of focus of the story itself. It seems like creators of the picture wanted to show all of the battle breadth and depth, on every possible level: human, psychological, social, national, strategic and tactical. Guess what? It didn't work. It couldn't work. If one wants to emphasize everything, one emphasize nothing. If one wants to show everything at once, one shows nothing. All the potential of this movie was dissolved in different side-plots and micro-episodes, in the end loosing its proper load. This thin solution is spiced up with some cliché, overdone pathos and stupid, contemporary jokes. Humor in the movie lacks the feeling of a "safety valve" for troubled mind. It lacks a hint of underlying sadness, so specific for polish sense of humor in trying times. Generally it's just artificial and thoughtless.

Now a little bit about the story itself (don't worry no spoilers here). To me storyline holds striking resemblance to a bulleted list. Such lists are quite popular in polish schools as a means of putting down most important motives in analyzed literature works. They're also common in cheat-sheets. So it is in the case of this movie. Love motif? Checked! Social view? Checked! Great battle? Check! Enemy's view? Checked! The list goes on. A series of unconnected fragments. The problem is – the movie is contiguous as a story telling mean. Good movies are able to glue seamlessly all bits and pieces of single scenes into one logical, contiguous tale. "Bitwa..." in many places changes topics without warning and reason leaving many things inelegantly untold.

Next thing: photography. Sławomir Idziak is mentioned as director of photography. I say: no way! Take "Gattaca" or "Black Hawk Down". There is no way the same man was responsible for shooting them. There are some (technically) nice takes but they're mostly just copies of "BHD" style of filming. I liked them but yet hoped for something specific to this movie, something more innovative, not just another visual "same ol' thing". And about 3D... More and more often I think of 3D as a hype helper in the way: "We can't make it worthy – let's at least make it 3D". I don't oppose new techniques – they're interesting and have indifferently a potential – but I oppose using new techniques whether it makes sense or not. In this case – I'm not impressed, sorry...

And where does it leave me? I'm still waiting... hoping... and pray my wait is not in vain. In the meantime: 3 stars out of pity :(

I was sent this film (with subtitles) on DVD by a friend in Poland and found it engrossing.

I guess it helped that I had already read a book on the subject, Warsaw 1920 by Adam Zamoyski, so knew what direction the film was going before it started, and that helped my understanding. The love interest and sub-plots enhanced the film, but again some knowledge of 20th Century Eastern European culture and politics helped.

My initial thoughts were that some of the colours were rather vivid and maybe unrealistic but a variety of cinematic styles were used and as they were not used frivolously they worked well in the end. The cabaret scenes showed glamour, style and sensitivity where necessary - all in stark contrast to some, frankly, barbaric and unglamorous battle scenes. I suspect that they were actually quite realistic representations of the fighting. There were some interesting touches that most people would not think about eg the taking of soldiers'/prisoners' boots (sometimes before their wearers were dead) because of their value at the time.

The principal story is true and the outcome of the battle ultimately decided whether Poland enjoyed independence between its partitioning until the end of WW1 and its invasion by the Germans and then the Russians in 1939.

For those with an interest in Eastern European history, it has been said that Stalin's treatment of the Polish Army officers in WW2 (see the superb film Katyn) was determined by the outcome of this battle.

I love Polish history. I am fond of the Civil War period, and this particular period is of an extreme interest. 1920 was the year decisive for Poland, since Soviet powers decided to attack the land and take it making it a Soviet republic. The slim but brave Polish army defends the Motherland and due to several smart moves manages to defeat Soviet troops and keep the country integrity intact. That was history. Now, Jerzy Hoffman made a grand war film with a huge budget and great Andrzej Idziak as a cameraman. Great casting, excellent actors (Urbanska, Szyc, Olbrychski, Domogarow, Ferency, Kabo among many), superb color scheme, good music, awesome battle scenes, and a sheer explosion of patriotism galore. The film is generally very good, and a great period piece, the obvious similarities between Bitwa and Ogniem i Mieczem made it even better. But there are some weak dialogs, some prolonged scenes, some obvious caricature images of Bolsheviks - these all made the film good, but not perfect. Which is a pity, it could've been much better