1920 Bitwa Warszawska

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.

'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.

My starting point for this film was no knowledge of this famous battle (and I imagine a good many people from outside central/eastern Europe know little about it either), which made this film a real cultural education.

If films were like singing, this film would be a rowdy pub singalong rather than a finely nuanced choral mass, but by the end of it, I didn't mind one bit. There are a few functions it should fulfill: to tell the amazing story of this battle (I had to educate myself afterward, and it really is an amazing episode) as well as to say something about Poland's place in the world, and explain something about Polish mentality, particularly with respect to Russia. It more or less succeeds on all fronts, even while lurching from almost slapstick comedy (a beloved art form in Eastern European film) to the horrors of war to the important military strategising scenes.

The nightclub scenes are really well done, with some great stage numbers, which although incidental to the main story, lend authenticity. The two leads - one a soldier, one the night club star singer are warm characters, and the rest of the cast are good too. The war scenes are not only visceral and realistic, but historically fascinating. At the point in time of this battle, the old technologies of canon and horse were competing with machine guns and armoured cars. But in 1920, machine guns often jammed (the downside), but were becoming lighter and nearly portable (the upside), while armoured cars were not much more than a T-model Ford covered in steel sheets, undoubtedly with limited range and speed. This meant that no single technology was decisive: in the end, a Polish cavalry charge is what sends the Bolsheviks fleeing, even though they had greater numbers and more 'new' technology.

Some scenes are set in the halls of the Kremlin and involve the conversations of Lenin, Stalin, and others as they plan the attack, justified by what seems today an absurd concept of a pan-European (and then global) socialist nirvana. It's hard to believe anyone could even think in such abstract terms, with a complete disregard for real human lives and indeed entire countries and cultures, but we know of course that it was only too real.

It would have been easy for this film to be a breast-beating Polish nationalist pride statement, but it absolutely avoids that stance, and in doing so I suspect would make many Polish people proud of what their forebears achieved in this battle, and how they are perceived today. For me, with little knowledge of Polish culture, it was a real eye-opener into issues such as the historical antipathy for Russia, and the insecurity of even being Polish during a century of invasion. The Polish general Jozef Pilsudski is portrayed as a real person, rather than a heroic personification of his erstwhile legend, and in doing so, allows us to reconstruct the legend for ourselves.

One complaint: the 3D is terrible (I didn't realise it was 3D until too late). I really hate 3D, and I found it terribly disturbing when trying to focus, particularly on battle scene long shots. Let's give this 3D mania up now before too much money is spent on it - it adds nothing, and detracts from the great cinematography.

I recommend anyone who doesn't know much about Poland to go and see this film - you will learn a lot. And anyone who likes cinema with real heart and soul should see it as well. As for Polish people reading this, all I can say is that I am glad to see such an important episode in your history finally on the big screen.

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....