Kamienie na szaniec

Great acting, magnificent filming and meticulous attention to period detail. A very worthy account of resistance in occupied Poland. Quite how other reviewers found this boring is perplexing. It's really well paced, and an engrossing watch.

For all its faults as a work of cinema, this is an important history lesson for anyone who watches. This is a true story about real people & a real event which took place in occupied Warsaw in March 1943 & which was then almost immediately immortalised in a novel of the same name, which itself takes its title from a 19th century poem.

It deals well with the complexities & moral quandaries of resistance in Occupied Poland, but may also be somewhat incomprehensible for a non Polish audience not already well acquainted with these legendary characters & the nature of occupation under Nazi Germany.

A betrayal of the real story as told in the book - simply a poorly made film, not only does it fail to craft characters well or tell a compelling story (unbelievably so given the rich source material), it rapidly descends into gratuitous, laughably over-the-top torture-porn that seems to want to whip up a sense of aggrievedness and instill a worldview of fetishized, exalted victimhood in Polish viewers. Mostly though, it's just exceedingly boring. An atrocious piece of work that's a slap in the face for the real Warsaw Uprising heroes.

This 2014 movie is a certain remake of older 1978's Polish film Akcja pod Arsenalem (Operation Arsenal) which tells the tragic and heroic story of Polish militia partisan group Gray Ranks (Szaere Szeregi). Here, there's more money, more modern sound, more visual treat, and suddenly less result. The movie suffers from lengthy time, slower pace, somewhat bland development, trite clichés and totally unnecessary prolonged love and violence scenes. Actors try their best but they often fail to deliver and convince us, more often we're left indifferent and unreached. There are awfully poor moments, too, like the woods chase scene, or the very end before credits roll. I do not even start to enumerate blatant goofs considering real facts or distortions of history. This film can be watched and then it will fade into insignificance as a weaker attempt losing the ground to a more powerful old version

This is not your typical war film. Stones for the Rampart shows us what the price of going to war, in any context, really means.

Whilst old men do the talking, as we are shown, its the young and innocent, who do the dying. They don't always die well, either. If indeed, there is such a thing.

Scenes of death and torture of young WWII Polish resistance fighters in this film, are not an easy watch. The underlying message is a valuable one, nonetheless.

I'm not sure this could be called an anti war film. The cause of Polish patriotism is still promoted. That said, there's enough here to make it plain war is not glorious, nor is it conspicuous.

Whether people die bravely or just die, they are swiftly replaced. Little more than stones in a defensive wall. Nameless and ultimately forgotten by all, except those few who knew them.

Acting is excellent. For a young cast all those involved are to be commended.

In short, a sad, sobering watch, that is not easily forgotten. Nor should it be.

9/10.