A long-belated post… I should have written it some four months ago, when
I watched the film and took down my reflections worth sharing on the blog, but
each week some more important stuff came into the foreground. Poor timing of many
posts (i.e. commenting on many events with a delay of at least a few days) is
in my view the biggest drawback of this blog. If I am to resolve to mend my
ways, realistically it will not happen before 6 June 2015…
The first question about the film that naturally comes to mind concerns
accuracy of depiction of the Warsaw Uprising. Virtually all films focusing on
the theme of the uprising touched upon values associated with that historical
event: patriotism, heroism, sacrifice, etc. All previous films played a part in
shaping the “proper” picture of the Warsaw Uprising in minds of young people,
while Miasto 44 is dissimilar to what audience have got used to. The picture is
naturalistic and niftily illustrates what summer of 1944 in Warsaw was. It
takes just a single word to describe it: a carnage.
The uprising is seen from a young generation’s perspective, hence
instead of patriotism and sacrifices, the film dwells on ordinary lives of
juvenile insurgents and things of central importance for people in their late
teens. Thus the war intertwines with love (and sometimes making love), hatred,
family lives, friendships and common human instincts, such as survival
instinct. Moral dilemmas of characters are in the forefront, yet hardly ever
they are shown in the broader context of the whole uprising or future of
post-war Poland. Their choices relate to personal lives of specific persons,
not their homeland. Personally, I favour such picture, ruthless and cruel, yet
closer to the truth than fairy tales of women ceasing to menstruate during the
uprising.
The cruelty and naturalism of the film were one of the reasons why film
director, Jan Komasa, faced a barrage of accusations from insurgents.
Youngsters definitely have to be taught what the Warsaw Uprising was really
about and despite not being wholeheartedly enchanted by the film, I appreciate
the director’s intention to shoot a film which would truthfully show
wretchedness of those days. Some insurgents claim the brutality in the film
tarnishes the memory of their valiant battle. Faced with such arguments, we
must ask ourselves whether we want to rewrite the history. Making ten-year-old
boys wear helmets, handing them dummy guns and telling them to run around and
play the uprising is for me an actual slap on the face and a blatant distortion
of the carnage, since wiping out Warsaw from the map of Europe and death of
200,000 people was nothing else but a gruesome carnage. I prefer repulsive
sights of heaps of corpses and disfigured bodies of the alive to plain cult of
brave insurgents.
The film selectively shows historical background of the uprising,
however the selection of facts, adroitly highlighted between the lines,
deserves commendation. It is underlined when the uprising broke out, Poles
hoped it would last two or three days, before Soviet army came and cracked down
on the Nazi occupier. Hopes for aid from Soviets was the main reason why most
mutineers were unprepared and too often unarmed. On the other hand at the
beginning of the film the viewer is told after five years of being humiliated
and put down by Germans, lust for fight among inhabitants of Warsaw was too
strong to be tempered. The march of Soviet army was by all characters treated
with proper reserve. Advance of Red army gave hope for liberation from one
occupier and relief from hardships of war, yet by no means Soviet were our
friends. Tactic alliance in that situation was the lesser of two evils, but
everyone knew Soviets did not give a damn about Warsaw… The film also reminds
some soldiers from the Berling Army seeped to the left shore of Vistula and
attempted to fight in the Warsaw uprising, yet given their inexperience in
fighting in the city, they dropped like flies.
Special effects come in abundance in the film, most probably to appeal
to younger audience. Nonetheless, I have found plenty of them gratuitous and
detracting from authenticity of the picture. Some scenes in the film are
totally out of place, with two taking the biscuit: one showing intercourse in
the rhythm of techno music and the other of massive slaughter taking place when
a slow-tempo ich liebe dich German ditty resounds in the background. I have
found the former scene most misplaced in the film, not because I have something
against sexual scenes, but because sight of two emaciated, unwashed for many
days and wounded young people, who all of the sudden indulge in passionate
intercourse which requires some fitness, simply does not fit the story. The
scene was hailed controversial, since many uprising participants claimed nobody
in that time thought about any closer relationships with representatives of the
opposite sex, not to mention making love…
Miasto 44 inexorably prompts ponderings upon how human psyche can be
affected by such traumatic event as the Warsaw Uprising. Each of the young
people who spent almost two months in Warsaw Uprising witnessed scores of human
deceases and tremendous suffering. Many times their survival instinct telling
them to save their lives at expense of other people’s lives, conflicted with
decency telling them to make sacrifices to rescue fellow men… Human psyche
combats trauma by increasing resilience. Thus, in such extreme situations, in
order to not to go insane, human beings naturally grow indifferent and
insensitive to what they should be sensitive under normal circumstances… The
question how humans cope with traumas of such kind is unlikely to be fully
answered, since most people who lived through such slaughter unconsciously try
to erase memories of distress. My maternal grandmother who spent almost the
whole Warsaw Uprising hidden in a basement with her sister (their mother was
killed in bombardment when she ventured above ground to come by some nutrition
on 6 August 1944) and was driven away to Pruszkow by Germans, refused to talk
about the uprising.
Despite not being a masterpiece, the film is worth spending two hours to
watch it. You may be captivated by it or not, but it does a great job of giving
testimony of one of the biggest humanitarian disasters in the history of
mankind without resorting to disproportionate martyrdom. And finally, although
during the last thirty minutes the depiction of carnage is grisly, the last
scene, with special effects falling into place, makes up for all previous flaws
of the film and renders without a glitch how the last days of the Warsaw
Uprising looked like. As my grandparents confirm, the glow of burning capital
was visible in late September 1944 even thirty kilometres away from the blaze.
1 comment:
I have watched just Miasto 44 on DVD - with English subtitles. Its certainly different to "Kanal", or "Is Paris Burning", to which some viewers may make comparisons. The producers have made a huge effort for period authenticity in the settings, the vehicles, clothing, uniforms and military vehicles. However, the lack of ANY historical, political or military context really detracts from the huge effort....and then the characters....
I appreciate the need for the movie to appeal to a younger "MTV" generation, but the result here is inconsistent and surreal - especially the opening half hour, which give the impression young Warsavians could go out at night partying, and swim in the river cheering the sights and sounds of the approaching Soviet Army...ah....didn't the Germans maintain the same savage curfew and military security zones in Poland that they did in say, Holland, where my step-father spent the war as a teenager (and forced labourer in the last eight months of German occupation).
People may have found time for desperate sexual trysts during the Uprising, but really, why depict it in music video like style in this movie? What does it add?
Seriously, Miasto '44 is a lost opportunity...I'm not certain how its regarded by Polish audiences, but for Western audiences, perhaps not familiar with Polish history, it would be confusing at best, and at worst, cheapens the sacrifices of the AK and people of Warsaw.
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