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hwyhobo
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Tajemnica Westerplatte (2013)
Heavy-handed, contrived, and opaque.
I understand this movie was intended to start a conversation about the Westerplatte Polish national myth. Unfortunately, it fails on three fronts:
(1) It doesn't ask questions, it shoves the answer down our throats with heavy-handed character portrayals. (2) It operates on the basis of deep despair of the soldiers and mental breakdown, but it does not support it with battle scenes. (3) It engages in opaque, meandering plot twists and difficult to follow timeline changes.
Those three aspects combined make the movie seem contrived and hard to understand to outsiders.
Ida (2013)
Excellent photography with unsatisfying messages
Quote from an earlier review: > "Red Hair Wanda" because she ruthlessly adjudged death penalty to a few war criminals
No. She was called Red Wanda (actually "Bloody Wanda" from the original Polish dialog) because she ruthlessly murdered Polish patriots opposed to Stalinist oppression in show trials. Her character was inspired (as revealed by the director in later interviews) by a real-life Helena Wolińska-Brus, originally Fajga Mindla Danielak. The difference is, the original character did not have any moral upheaval, and when Stalinism collapsed and communist party started to fracture, she emigrated to England. She died there at the age of 89. Poland tried to extradite her repeatedly, but to no avail.
I also understand why this film was met with mixed reception in Poland. This is the country where up to 50,000 Poles were murdered by the Nazis for protecting Jews (half of all people honored as "Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem are Poles). Yet, this movie focuses on a psychopath who murders a Jewish family for material gain. There is not a single positive Polish character in this movie, despite the fact that even the Jewish-Stalinist murderer is painted with warmth and understanding. Considering lack of basic historical education in the West about that period in Poland, I understand why some Poles are dismayed, and why some even call this movie anti-Polish.
As for the movie itself, I found it a bit too predictable and unsatisfying. Still, I give it 5/10 for excellent photography by Ryszard Lenczewski and Lukasz Zal.
Mein Kampf (2009)
Insult to one's intelligence
At first I thought the author was just being fanciful with facts, but as the movie deteriorated and sank deeper and deeper into absurd, I am left puzzling - what was the point of this?
The movie has nothing to do with historical facts, it isn't really funny, it portrays Hitler as an insane petulant teenager cared for by a loving wise old Jew (however unkempt) who apparently also wrote Mein Kampf, but of course with a different message, and who is sexually pestered by a young blond maiden with long braids... should I continue?
The movie meanders from ridiculous to insulting. In the end you can't believe you just watched it.
Sniper 2 (2002)
Incomprehensible crud
I cannot believe this movie is scoring so high. Just above everything in this film is wrong. The setting is wrong. The language spoken is wrong. The second sniper being black and not attracting any attention on the streets or from the Serbian soldiers is ludicrous (this is supposedly Serbia, people, not Los Angeles). Tom Berenger, a "sniper", cannot tell a Mosin Nagant from a Mauser. Every fender bender results in spectacular explosions of multiple vehicles. To add insult to injury, Tom Berenger is so overweight, in the scene where he is "running away" from the soldiers, he looks like he is about the have a stroke after 50 steps or so.
This flick is an insult to one's intelligence. It makes Steven Seagal's movies look downright intellectual.