MovieChat Forums > Kanal (1957) Discussion > A sad story of sacrafice...

A sad story of sacrafice...

posted 20 years ago by monster-b
6 replies | jump to latest

This movie, always brings tears to my eyes. Its a story of sacrafice. Polish resistance fighters who never gave up, in the struggle for freedom and democracy. Perhaps it may seem with the retrospect of history that the Warsaw Uprising was fruitless and pointless, but the truth remains that it was in Polish blood to rise up and fight back. It wasnt the first time of course, unlike many of the occupied nations who had "underground movements", Poland had been actively opposing the Nazis throughout the war, and the Uprising was their biggest operation.

Unfortunetly, the Americans and British have always overlooked Polish sacrifice in the war. The greatest sacrifice, even greater then the Soviets and their statistical amount of casualties (mainly caused by that Georgian vampire Stalin). Has anyone ever known that the Pole's were the ones to crack the first Engima Code? The first to fight back against the Germans? The ones to win against the Afrika corps in Tobruk and El Alamein? They helped the British, fight during the Battle of Britain, took out the German paratroop batallion at Monte Cassino (while two nations before them had been slaughtered), fought and were slaughtered in Holland over stupidity of British generals in the Operation Market Garden. Of course, it will always be overlooked.

Its a shame we were not as smart as the Czechs and simply not fight; perhaps whats a worst shame is the fact that the world has overlooked the great sacrafice of such a small nation.

[–] rmoba13 20 years ago

Amen to American failure to acknowledgement Polish sacrifice; how can the only special on the Warsaw Uprising be on CNN? What I find most compelling about Kanal is the sense of ordinary life and general good humor, which puntuated by death and panic. A couple observations (wedlug mnie):

1) This movie squeaked out barely 3 years after Stalin died, and the Polish film industry could even begin to suggest that Poles could struggle against the Germans without Soviet "fraternal" help. That it ran into significant problems with the censors is no suprise, especially if the film can be viewed as a metaphorical struggle against Stalinist oppression. Wajda may suggest this by quoting Szczepanski(1944):

... But know this: from our tombstones
A victorious new Poland will be born
And you will not walk this land
You Red Ruler of bestial forces!

2) What choices did members of the AK (Polish Home Army) really have? Katyn and the thousands of Polish POWs who disappeared into Siberia in 1939 would suggest that general wartime attitude "the Nazis can kill you for nothing, so you might as well die for something" applied to the Red Army as well. It should be noted that AK leadership came from the prewar Polish army which had defeated the Red Army near Warsaw in 1921, and were viewed as anti-Soviet. Arrival of the Red Army could not be viewed as Liberation (quite correctly); it certainly wasn't in 1939. Obviously Ashes and Diamonds takes this case farther. This in no way negates their heroism.

[–] Xcalat3 14 years ago

very well said

When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...

[–] questionz_99 12 years ago

[A sad story of sacrafice...]

And horrible spelling.

[–] petepp2 11 years ago

Poland is not small nation. 38.5 mln polish citizens + 10 mln polish people abroad. Poland should be in G20.

[–] henry999-1 11 years ago

My grandfather was Polish and I grew up in an expatriate Polish community. They (we?) are the most Romantic people I have ever known. I have been to 'the old country' several many times, both in the communist era and after.

Wajda is of course a genius and in my opinion this is one of the greatest films ever made, although it never received its due attention in the West.

The look on the face of the officer at the very end is the most graphic representation of mid-20th century existentialist Angst I have ever seen.

cheers,

Henry

[–] gb321 9 years ago

All that, and then there's this guy, who should be a household name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki

My film blog:
http://gabrielbruskoff.wordpress.com