1920 Bitwa Warszawska

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 :(

Here comes another history epic from the Poland's number one producer Erzy Hoffman who is a tireless re-creator of Polish war sagas. After a number of rather successful epic films dedicated to Polish Deluge period (late 17 c.) he turns here to a more recent - but by no means less dramatic and tragic period - the war for Polish independence from Soviet ("Red") Russia of 1920. The canvas he paints strikes with realism, meticulous attention to historical details everywhere, be it Polish fashion vintage 1920 or Red Army commissars' brutal faces, or the renegade Don Cossak's military uniforms. The war scenes are very graphic and realistic, the quality of camera work and dynamics of military action could well put Ridly Scott to shame. It is stunning how Mr. Hoffman managed to develop each character to a remarkable depth - they all, Poles, Red and White Russians are very credible psychologically and culturally. So my congratulations go to maestro Hoffman who created another quality history saga. 9 stars out of 10. One star less is given only for one drawback - very little attention is given in the film to the Soviet military genius - Mikhail Tukachewski ("The Red Napoleon") who was commanding the Red invasion and later became both the hero and the victim of Russia's Red Empire.

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....

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.

Oh, I really wanted to like this! Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed.

I have so many issues with this film. I assumed Jan (Borys Szyc) to be the film's hero, but he was absent for such a long time during the movie. I then aimed my attention at his wife, Ola (Natasza Urbanska), who was a far better prospect as the film's protagonist, but a bit unexplored.

Jan went to the war on his wedding day; while his wife was still in her wedding dress. We then follow Jan's journey from soldier to being accused of treason and sentenced to death. Luckily, he is saved by an invasion from the Bolsheviks, and his journey continued.

Ola in the meantime joins the army, as well, when she learns Jan is still alive. The film could have been so much better, but there was so much talk and so little action. The (few) action sequences were well made, but by no means impressive. I've seen many war movies and these battle scenes were not all that special. The film's colour grading also wasn't always great. Some scenes looked like they were entirely computer generated. Some looked like the camera had a filter over the lens. (Maybe this is due to the fact the film was shot for 3D. Apparently they used a Fusion Camera System, which shot in stereoscopic 3D. I suppose it looked much better in 3D, but I watched it in 2D).

One of the biggest issues I had with the film, was the score. Usually epic battle scenes have sweeping music, but with 'Battle of Warsaw' the score was almost too lively - like music you expect at a fair or circus. It completely clashed with the action on screen and made the battle scenes felt comical. Speaking of comical, moments during the attack scenes were actually funny - and I don't think it was intended to be! Tension could have been enhanced with a better score.

Ola was my favourite character, but even she was a bit unexplored. She had the potential to be a far more interesting character - like Rachel from 'Black Book' for instance.

Ultimately, the film fell flat on an emotional level. It simply was not effective enough as the love story they obviously wanted it to be. Note that it is still a reasonably good film one can enjoy, and it does have a feel-good ending.