Polish War Movies

[48ppsk]

Greetings All,

I have been going through the lists of books, web resources, etc.
How about a list of Polish war movies and war movies with Polish content.
These are the ones that I have.

Krzyz Walecznych
Kontrybucja
Major Hubal
1612
Pan Tadeusz
WIth Fire and Sword
The Deluge
Colonel Wolodyjowski
The Last Stage-Ostatni Etap
Katyn
The Grey Zone
A Bridge Too Far
The Battle of Britain
Defiance

Mike

[dorava]

Kanal

[A.J. Zawadzki]

A recent release that covers the tragic story of Polish hero General Emil Fieldorf – aka by the pseudonym General Nil, the film’s title. I look forward to seeing this one. Here’s a snippet from the film showing the Polish underground army’s assassination of Franz Kutschera in Warsaw 1944. This was the carrying out of his death sentence for crimes against the Polish nation:

YouTube - Assassination of Franz Kutschera

[cichociemny]

Some good Polish war movies about the Free Forces, 1939 and Home Army:

Orzel - Polish submarine ORP Orzel
Virtuti - 1939 campaign
Pogranicze w ogniu - Polish MI5/CIA in the 1920' and 1930's 24 part series
Wielka Droga - Monte Cassino, ONLY film made after the war by Free Poles
Daleka jest droga - Polish 1st Armoured Div
Westerplatte - 1939 defence of Westerplatte
Akcja pod Arsenalem - Very sucessfull attack to free a Polish AK soldier in 1943
Popiol i diament - Polish Home army soldiers in 1946 fighting the Communist
Tajemnica Enigmy - The real story of the Enigma codebrakers
Kolumbowie - series about the Home Army and Warsaw Uprising
Zakazane Piosenki - Film about Warsaw 1939-45 first Polish film made after the war
Plomienne serca - A MUST from 1937, about 2 polish officer cadets ALL ORIGINAL UNIFORM's
Rapsodia Baltyku - Film from 1935/36 about Polish navy, filming took place on the ORP Wicher

and upcoming "Bitwa Warszawska 1920" trailer on youtube A MUST GENTS

Also if you love Pan Wolodyjowski, there is a SERIES with the same actor Lomnicki "Przygody pana Michala" real great.

And if you like docos, get Woloszanski, i think there on youtube, the good ones are General Kutrzeba, Bitwa pod Mokra, 1920

There many many many more films however of the top of my head these are really worth watching and avoid the whole communist propaganda.
Some of these films are available through youtube, some you can download through chomikuj however downloads cost a few zloty, if your patient type into google.pl the title with the word rapidshare, web pages or forum should come up and download the files(usually a film is broken into 7 files).
The reason i say this, many of these films are not available on DVD and probably never will be!!!

If anyone is after a specific topic please let me know, and i can find stuff whats good, i myself have over 100 polish war movies and probably 40 docos.
Also if you have trouble finding a movie let me know and i will direct you in the right direction to get it. There are some real great movies out there and the only reason i know is i lived 4 years in Poland just now and did a lot of research.

[GFC]

I love this one :The Birthday (1980) - IMDb

It came out in 1980, and then forgotten during martial law, and few people have seen it. Covers the occasions of a young man's birthdays in Warsaw September 23rd of 1938, 1939, 1942 and 1944

It was one of Piotr Lysak's starring roles during his short career, which included teh TV movie " Godzina 'W' " and Wajda's A Love in Germany.

[Cenowski]

I have a fairly huge collection of Polish films many of which are War films..... I seems to be hard to be able to buy many of the War films produced in PRL times on DVD.

I have had Hubal for a while and only today i thought i would watch it, its a great film, maybe it could of been greater but then i was done a while ago.....

I would be interested to know what anyone else thought of Hubal who has watched it as a War film and also as a testiment to the story of Hubal and his unit.

[Gary J]

The Pianist ..
And slightly to one side a Czech film ... Dark Blue World

[diver99]

I recently saw, The Gleiwitz Case , made in East Germany, 1961.
Tells the story of the build up to the attack on the transmitter station. Being East German it isn't overtly communist propaganda, but could have been made today.

[Krakow1]

If you watch that movie, Hubal, in the beginning there is a scene when the soldiers are in a swamp, crossing a river... You will hear the name "Kalenkiewicz",
of course they are refering to (then) Por Kalenkiewicz who is considered the Father of the Cichociemni and Paratroopers, who was actually there in 1939, before crossing to the West, training as CC, coming back and dying in a big battle with soviet troops. along him died two other CC, Cpt Ostroga and Cpt Hatrak. There is a great book out there : "Droga do Ostrej Bramy" written by Jan Erdman, it is really worth reading.

[StefanM]

There was a 1930 period film Gwiaździsta eskadra (The starry squadron) made about Polish 7th Air Escadrille ( 7 Eskadra Lotnicza) or as it is more well known as the Kościuszko Squadron. The film was directed by Leonard Buczkowsk and shot with the co-operation of the Polish army, it was supposed to have been the most expensive Polish film made before World War II.



I would love to see that film but all copies are claimed to have been destroyed by Soviets but I am sure a copy must exist somewhere? Can't believe copies weren't sent to US for both American and Polish-American audiences? Chicago maybe?