Visually, the film is very spectacular, and every now and then it fades to black and white to give it that "WWI" newsreel footage type feel which is well done. What makes it compelling is seeing "inter war" battles with the early T17 tanks, cavalry, Russian tachankas, etc. And the various uniforms of the Cossacks, Russians, and French-armed Poles are well done. There is a lot of attention to detail here, and it is worth watching the movie for this alone, as it is a rarely touched upon period in film making. The masses of people on screen really make this stunning to watch, and the atmosphere is very well done.
Unfortunately, the story line lets the movie down. The protagonist doesn't really seem to do anything. He marries the love interest at the start, so there is nothing to develop here. He goes off to war and takes part in battles, but only as a participant, he does nothing heroic. The only development seems to be that there is a change in his political leanings, which is not that compelling a subject.
There is no one single "bad guy" to draw us in either. There are a couple of characters, one a cruel cheka operative, and the other on older Polish officer interested in the protagonists wife. However, neither seem sufficiently menacing, nor given enough screen time. Another is the background presence of Stalin, but this is not really developed either. In the end, the protagonist gets wounded by an unknown Russian soldier, rather than an existing character. There are no climactic showdowns here. By splitting the "bad guy" into so many smaller roles, the story telling falls very flat.
A second story line was the high level political one, with leaders of both sides being shown at different times. However, this is very under developed, and some of it does not make sense. There was scene where the Polish leader Pilsudski was accused of being a traitor by some other Polish political leaders, but it didn't seem to fit in to anything else, nor explained, nor developed. Then there are references to the Ukrainian leader Petliura fighting against the Russians at the start of the movie, but this goes nowhere as well.
And after such an emphatic victory against seemingly impossible odds, I would have thought that there would be scenes of relief and celebration at the end. But this never happened either.
I suspect that movie is just trying to do too much, by showing a vast array of different types of characters so as to give an overview of life at the time. But in the process, it loses out on story telling. However, it is worth seeing, if only for the grand scale and atmosphere of the visuals, during the much neglected "inter war" period.
Unfortunately, the story line lets the movie down. The protagonist doesn't really seem to do anything. He marries the love interest at the start, so there is nothing to develop here. He goes off to war and takes part in battles, but only as a participant, he does nothing heroic. The only development seems to be that there is a change in his political leanings, which is not that compelling a subject.
There is no one single "bad guy" to draw us in either. There are a couple of characters, one a cruel cheka operative, and the other on older Polish officer interested in the protagonists wife. However, neither seem sufficiently menacing, nor given enough screen time. Another is the background presence of Stalin, but this is not really developed either. In the end, the protagonist gets wounded by an unknown Russian soldier, rather than an existing character. There are no climactic showdowns here. By splitting the "bad guy" into so many smaller roles, the story telling falls very flat.
A second story line was the high level political one, with leaders of both sides being shown at different times. However, this is very under developed, and some of it does not make sense. There was scene where the Polish leader Pilsudski was accused of being a traitor by some other Polish political leaders, but it didn't seem to fit in to anything else, nor explained, nor developed. Then there are references to the Ukrainian leader Petliura fighting against the Russians at the start of the movie, but this goes nowhere as well.
And after such an emphatic victory against seemingly impossible odds, I would have thought that there would be scenes of relief and celebration at the end. But this never happened either.
I suspect that movie is just trying to do too much, by showing a vast array of different types of characters so as to give an overview of life at the time. But in the process, it loses out on story telling. However, it is worth seeing, if only for the grand scale and atmosphere of the visuals, during the much neglected "inter war" period.