Samson

The Golden Age of Polish cinema began shortly after WWII and did not ebb until four decades later. From its many outstanding directors, Andrzej Wajda was the best known outside Poland. I remember vividly the impact that A Generation (1955), Kanal (1957) and especially Ashes and Diamonds (1958) had when released in Buenos Aires in the late fifties. Given Wajda's curriculum in 1961, I thought Samson would merit a view. It does, but it is not an entirely satisfactory film.

The story is (obviously) a retelling of the legend of Samson and Delilah, with Nazis as Philistines. The scenario is Warsaw shortly before and during WWII, and Samson is Jakub Gold, a young Jewish resident of Warsaw ready to begin his studies at the Polytechnic University. He lands in jail and gains freedom only when the jail is damaged by German bombing at the opening of the war. After, he leads a precarious existence both inside and outside the Warsaw Ghetto, his survival depending on the goodwill and courage of strangers (few and far between).

The movie suffers from a heavy-handed effort to convey symbolic messages and to conform the action to the legend, which also makes the plot somewhat predictable at times. Also, key scenes are not given enough relief. There are positives, however; gritty, harsh black and white cinematography fits the tale, music is used sparingly and effectively and acting is excellent all around. Last, but not least there are a few history lessons. The chilly, sinister initial scenes in the Polytechnic show that violence against Jews in interwar Poland was not limited to the uneducated, and tolerated by the authorities. It also shows the appalling conditions in the Warsaw ghetto during the war, a topic which was not as well known in 1961 as it is today.

We follow a Jewish man in Warsaw just before and during WW2. He is jailed before the war for defending himself from an anti-semetic mob. The prisoners all escape as Warsaw is about to fall to the Germans. Then, he's in the ghetto, escapes and hides throughout the city. He wishes to return to the ghetto to share his people's fate rather than hide. He doesn't have the physical strength of his Biblical namesake but emotional strength. The film has kind of an unconvincing climax, needed a better fake explosion. Overall a good effort but not a home run for poland's greatest director.