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Last updated: October 17, 2009, 4:35 am
Katyn Cusomter reviews:
Average Rating: 4.5 Total Reviews: 25
(Scott A. Doering, 2009-10-16) My great grandfather was killed in the Katyn Forest Massacre, and my grandparents were sent to work camps (both escaped and survived). So, this movie hits extremely close to home for me. All I want to say is that I am happy that someone took the time to research and develop a movie about such a horiffic crime that was good enough to do it justice. If you have not seen this movie please watch it, as I think more people should be aware of this crime, and have the correct knowledge about it. Someday all of those who did these evil things will be judged and forgotten, while the memory of those who were brave until the end will live on forever. Nie wiadomo kiedy wroce do domu. I hope you have all finally found your way home.
(S. McGee, 2009-10-12) This is a haunting film that has stuck with me for weeks since I first saw it; the kind of film that poses important questions without sacrificing the kind of narrative intensity the subject -- the murder of thousands of Polish officers held prisoner of war by the Soviet Union in the early years of World War II -- demands. From the opening shot, when a group of refugees fleeing the invading Germans encounters another group coming from the opposite direction and fleeing from the Soviet Union -- which has taken advantage of the non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviets to move in and occupy the eastern half of the country -- the stage has been set for the conflict. In the middle are the hapless Poles, with nowhere to turn; their only allies hundreds of miles away in France and England, showing no sign of running to help them. In Krakow, one character, a university professor, is deported to a concentration camp by the Germans; his son, an Army officer, is imprisoned by the Soviets. What is there to choose between them? The story revolves around the choices made by the characters -- to live or to die, to accept historical distortions in the name of surviving and moving forward with their lives or to deny those in the face of horrific consequences. The film deals with a number of characters -- the wife of a general, the wife of the major, their daughters, their extended family, the two sisters of an engineer turned aircraft designer -- and their lives before, during and after the war, as well as that of one who miraculously escaped the carnage of Katyn forest, but becomes a victim of a different kind. Initially, some aspects of the film struck me as slightly propagandistic, not so much in the sense of being anti-Soviet (although that is definitely a major theme) but in the sense of Polish nationalist. Still, I was quickly caught up in the story, thanks to the director's wisdom in noting that it is systems and people who adhere to those systems in a rigid way who are to blame, rather than individuals. While both the Soviets and the Nazis are displayed as despicable, it is a Soviet officer who performs a remarkable service for one of the army officer's wives early on in the story. What is truth, and to what extent will people insist on their right to the truth when the price to be paid is nearly total -- freedom, peace of mind, friendship, etc.? Do we owe a greater loyalty to those who are dead, or to ourselves when they are gone and we can no longer do anything for them? Few films have the guts to tackle such complex issues and to do so in an honest fashion. Some of the answers -- as portrayed in the film, at least -- may be idealistic and even a bit unlikely, but such is the grip of the film that this didn't even occur to me until days later, and even then didn't cause me to question my impression of the film. We know a lot about the Holocaust, thanks to films such as Schindler's List. This film may be the start of a wider-ranging debate about other kinds of war crimes, which, although they don't measure up to the horrors of the Nazi-designed genocide, should not be forgotten. This is definitely a polemical film, with a strong anti-Soviet/anti-Russian message, but it hews very close to what I know of the history of the period, and the wartime and postwar experience of Poland explains much about the current political state of Central Europe. This is a startling and remarkable film that I'd recommend strongly to anyone with an interest in the period or a taste for cinema (vs Hollywood blockbusters). This isn't a star vehicle; it's an ensemble cast of actors who will be unfamiliar to most in North America, and the story skips quickly from one narrative to the next. It repays the effort. (Some of the subtitles were a bit erratic... but still comprehensible.) The final scenes are among the most chilling I have ever witnessed in my life.
(Mr. J. B. Brisset, 2009-10-08) I have just received the DVD from Amazon.UK,this film still being frown upon by the french press authorities which, as everybody knows, are still controlled by the reds. Our first viewing of it(it will require some others before we can thoroughly understand the vision of the director) conveys the unpleasant impression of complete confusion and want of clarity. The habit of Mr wajda to shift all the time from a period or a group of characters to an other, added to the fact that the subtitles follow one another so rapidly, is extemely confusing. The impression of authenticity and horror, in my views, would have been better conveyed had the film been shot in black and white.
(Francisco J. Calderon, 2009-10-07) ...there's always the horrible tiny blooper that ruins the whole show for me: right after the lovely Ewa rescues the young Tadeusz from the cops, he makes a needless comment about Disney's "Sleeping Beauty"; a movie that came out in 1959. Unfortunately, this scene takes place in ...1946. Where was Wajda's script girl, for gods sake? And actually no; it's not a minor flaw. Since most of the plot revolves around what a difference a date makes, this stupid little gaffe self-mockingly sabotages the movie's entire case: "1940, 1941, Nazis, Soviets ...so what? Who cares? Not even the filmmaker! See?" Aside from that this film is a must, and I concur with the reviewer who says it's the kind of movie Hollywood would never make. Compare it with the false platitudes of, say, "The Good German" and you'll see how far Tinseltown is willing to lie rather than be branded "politically incorrect" by some showbiz sage still in mourning for the Rosenbergs. At the end of the day -and opprobrious as it was- McCarthysm was no equal to Communism by any standard. At its worst, few people lost their jobs during the former while millions were murdered by the latter. Among them, Andrzej Wajda's father. In Katyn. By the Soviets. Allies of the Nazis. Because they were -and are- one and the same thing. No minced words; see the film.
(John H. Mitchell, 2009-09-29) A stunning production that portrays the systematic and ruthless Katyn Forest (In Poland) murder by the Soviet NKVD of over 20,000 Polish army officers, many of whom were army reservists. Called to do their patriotic duty, they represented the core of the Polish professional elite, from professors to doctors and lawyers and businessmen and were thus a core potential threat to the suzerainty of Soviet power in the newly conquered territory. On Stalin's orders, they were bussed into the forest, each shot in the back of the head and dumped in a mass grave. The movie is particularly effective in the way it carries representative families along as the tragedy unfolds, woven into the fabric of the portrayal of a small but sophisticated nation overwhelmed by the brute power of the Nazis on one hand and the Soviets on the other, each cynically aligned with the other for plunder and territorial rape. Soviet propaganda for years worked hard to blame the atrocity on the Nazis--sustained for a long time by "fellow travelers" world wide--but the truth came out. Add another 22,000 victims to the colossal abyss of Soviet horrors!