A perfect example of a bad, ineffective, heavy-handed and ham-fisted Stalinist propaganda film from Poland. Unlike many other contemporary socialist-realist works (such as "Miasto nieujarzmione", "Gromada", "Trzy opowiesci", "Celuloza" or "Pod gwiazda frygijska") which use the Stalinist propaganda effectively and convincingly, this is such an inept and ridiculous attempt that one is almost tempted to suspect a self-sabotage on the part of its otherwise talented director, Wanda Jakubowska (whose "Ostatni etap", a leftist, but non-Stalinist work, was the best Polish film of 1948). Allegedly a biographical drama about a famous Polish Communist general, Karol Swierczewski, the film spends so much time and energy on countless supporting characters, parallel storylines and other digressions, that its narrative structure literally collapses in a heap of rubble. Attempting to trace the highlights of Swierczewski's career (from his participation in the Soviet Revolution, through the Spanish Civil War to the battlefields of World War II and the repression of the Ukrainian resistance in the Bieszczady Mountains, where he died in 1947), the film often forgets its nominal hero, and focuses on many other subjects, unrelated to his life. Ultimately, it feels less like a biopic, and more like an epic drama about the fight between Communism and Fascism in the first half of the 20th century, but a horribly disjointed and confusing one.
May 13, 1970
Zolnierz zwyciestwa (1953) *
A perfect example of a bad, ineffective, heavy-handed and ham-fisted Stalinist propaganda film from Poland. Unlike many other contemporary socialist-realist works (such as "Miasto nieujarzmione", "Gromada", "Trzy opowiesci", "Celuloza" or "Pod gwiazda frygijska") which use the Stalinist propaganda effectively and convincingly, this is such an inept and ridiculous attempt that one is almost tempted to suspect a self-sabotage on the part of its otherwise talented director, Wanda Jakubowska (whose "Ostatni etap", a leftist, but non-Stalinist work, was the best Polish film of 1948). Allegedly a biographical drama about a famous Polish Communist general, Karol Swierczewski, the film spends so much time and energy on countless supporting characters, parallel storylines and other digressions, that its narrative structure literally collapses in a heap of rubble. Attempting to trace the highlights of Swierczewski's career (from his participation in the Soviet Revolution, through the Spanish Civil War to the battlefields of World War II and the repression of the Ukrainian resistance in the Bieszczady Mountains, where he died in 1947), the film often forgets its nominal hero, and focuses on many other subjects, unrelated to his life. Ultimately, it feels less like a biopic, and more like an epic drama about the fight between Communism and Fascism in the first half of the 20th century, but a horribly disjointed and confusing one.
