The words in my review's title are the reference to the romantic poem 'The Two Giants' by the well-known Russian poet Lermontov; and as for the poem, it (just normally for any major creative works) may be interpreted as loosely as one likes. Experts in literature, however, believe this poem of the two giants fighting is in fact about Napoleonic invasion of Russia in 1812, as the same poet later, on the same topic, the Battle of Borodino, released the masterpiece 'But tell me, uncle, why our men let Moscow burn, yet fought again to drive the French away? ' The two giants' hand-to-hand fight, a metaphorical description of persistent struggle of the powers for a land where simple people live meekly awaiting who wins and thus whom to submit, is literally true either in the centuries-old drama of feud between Russia and Poland
This Polish film is certainly 'throwing stones at our Russian window'. If the events described in it were not that temporally distant, those would be not even 'stones' but 'swell cobble-stones'. As a major defeat, sustained by the Red Army, is shown here while the Red Army is still considered to be invincible in stereotyped social view of Russia. But alas, those Russians as well, to whom history is not alien, do know that catastrophic defeats causing bitterness of forfeit in terms of land and, on a large scale, of influence, were sustained by us more than once; moreover, many splendid victories of Russia were canceled out before we could reap their fruits. This was like nobody's business vividly in evidence as concerns confrontation with Poles who still name their country 'Rzeczpospolita' which sounds magniloquent for slavophones. The phrase 'with varied success' ideally fits here like nobody's business! Some people even believe that Russians simply misappropriated the right of bearing the name 'Russians', as historically, where now major Russian cities are situated, no Slavs at all used to be; there were Finno-Ugrs who used to live there; also, centuries-old experiences as a Turkic-Mongolian tributaries (those guys from the Golden Horde often acted with fire and sword) was likely to have left our nation marked for life How many words in Russian are heavily Turkic! How many geographical names in the seemingly 'hail-fellow-well-met' Russian backwoods are heavily Finno-Ugric! And as for the territories just a bit westwards of the Russian cities of Tver and Bryansk (i.e. what is now Belarus, Poland, the Baltic states and the Ukraine) a powerful Slav-led kingdom used to be not so long ago, and its population minded very much Muscovy's bold push for (laying a claim to) the Third Rome standing (became cheeky, huh?!)! Thus, some haters say, there is no word for it! Muscovites have the nerve to boast their 'Russianity', while the Ukraine people, and Poles, and Belarusians, and Lithuanians have to content themselves with supporting roles of 'quasi' nations, which had the very opportunity to appear just by chance of epic fails of the said Muscovites; and the latter ones would get enthusiastic about some dubious, spouting blood, idea (Tsarism, Sovietism, Yeltsinism, specify) and tend to infect half the world with it – at that, the aforesaid Poles & Co. would be likely to suffer most of all Hard to say, whether this is true, but in the end, never mind what used to be, what we eventually have here – that matters; he laughs best who laughs last. But there is neither 'last' victory, nor 'last' revolution, nor 'last' reform: as there is no last number on number line. Please not again! keep hoping... But Slavs are again killing Slavs for for the right of bearing the title of the Power History repeats itself, history continues It is unclear yet if the Polish and the Finnish experience would be useful for the Ukraine...
What one should show in a film telling of one of the most severe cants of the wheel of history? when it is being defined, regarding this or that country, whether to be or not to be; regarding this or that truth, is it going to win or to be defeated? (Each country either by armed force or, less likely, in specie settles the bill of its sovereignty; truth has always fallen upon truth as even our ape-like ancestors would fall upon each other, holding cudgels, whooping each one's own deity's – or one's own chief's – name). One should show heroic upsurge of the nation which was determined to, ad rem, not just yell scurrilous things (especially, outraging national leaders of the state one hates), but also combat to the death etc. And the Poles have managed to show this: even the blockheads who would always be boozing in inns became, in actual fact of the war, capable signalmen and cipher officers who tried their best to service their motherland while simple soldiers were working wonders on the Vistila beating back the Red Army, which was at the gates of Warsaw, just going to seize it One should show the combat itself: bloody, tremendous, plausible. And it is shown like this! Trenches heaped up with the killed and the wounded whose bodies are trampled on by the alive, hurling themselves at the enemy to fight hand-to hand... Violence in action and in a lull... Soldiers' sweat, and blood, and abuse... What a moment when a Red Army soldier is caught red-handed, raping a civilian woman! The 'red' commander indulgently offers him to marry her – or to be shot and killed! What the soldier answers and what happens next, is so special
In all fairness I must say, the Poles are not that poor wretch. Time and again, certain Polish hawkish circles would goad this honourable Slavic power into reckless wars where the Poles, not reckoning with domestic casualties and, all the more, giving their enemies no quarter, would try their best to, if not defeating, do them maximum harm, spoil all their plans
This Polish film is certainly 'throwing stones at our Russian window'. If the events described in it were not that temporally distant, those would be not even 'stones' but 'swell cobble-stones'. As a major defeat, sustained by the Red Army, is shown here while the Red Army is still considered to be invincible in stereotyped social view of Russia. But alas, those Russians as well, to whom history is not alien, do know that catastrophic defeats causing bitterness of forfeit in terms of land and, on a large scale, of influence, were sustained by us more than once; moreover, many splendid victories of Russia were canceled out before we could reap their fruits. This was like nobody's business vividly in evidence as concerns confrontation with Poles who still name their country 'Rzeczpospolita' which sounds magniloquent for slavophones. The phrase 'with varied success' ideally fits here like nobody's business! Some people even believe that Russians simply misappropriated the right of bearing the name 'Russians', as historically, where now major Russian cities are situated, no Slavs at all used to be; there were Finno-Ugrs who used to live there; also, centuries-old experiences as a Turkic-Mongolian tributaries (those guys from the Golden Horde often acted with fire and sword) was likely to have left our nation marked for life How many words in Russian are heavily Turkic! How many geographical names in the seemingly 'hail-fellow-well-met' Russian backwoods are heavily Finno-Ugric! And as for the territories just a bit westwards of the Russian cities of Tver and Bryansk (i.e. what is now Belarus, Poland, the Baltic states and the Ukraine) a powerful Slav-led kingdom used to be not so long ago, and its population minded very much Muscovy's bold push for (laying a claim to) the Third Rome standing (became cheeky, huh?!)! Thus, some haters say, there is no word for it! Muscovites have the nerve to boast their 'Russianity', while the Ukraine people, and Poles, and Belarusians, and Lithuanians have to content themselves with supporting roles of 'quasi' nations, which had the very opportunity to appear just by chance of epic fails of the said Muscovites; and the latter ones would get enthusiastic about some dubious, spouting blood, idea (Tsarism, Sovietism, Yeltsinism, specify) and tend to infect half the world with it – at that, the aforesaid Poles & Co. would be likely to suffer most of all Hard to say, whether this is true, but in the end, never mind what used to be, what we eventually have here – that matters; he laughs best who laughs last. But there is neither 'last' victory, nor 'last' revolution, nor 'last' reform: as there is no last number on number line. Please not again! keep hoping... But Slavs are again killing Slavs for for the right of bearing the title of the Power History repeats itself, history continues It is unclear yet if the Polish and the Finnish experience would be useful for the Ukraine...
What one should show in a film telling of one of the most severe cants of the wheel of history? when it is being defined, regarding this or that country, whether to be or not to be; regarding this or that truth, is it going to win or to be defeated? (Each country either by armed force or, less likely, in specie settles the bill of its sovereignty; truth has always fallen upon truth as even our ape-like ancestors would fall upon each other, holding cudgels, whooping each one's own deity's – or one's own chief's – name). One should show heroic upsurge of the nation which was determined to, ad rem, not just yell scurrilous things (especially, outraging national leaders of the state one hates), but also combat to the death etc. And the Poles have managed to show this: even the blockheads who would always be boozing in inns became, in actual fact of the war, capable signalmen and cipher officers who tried their best to service their motherland while simple soldiers were working wonders on the Vistila beating back the Red Army, which was at the gates of Warsaw, just going to seize it One should show the combat itself: bloody, tremendous, plausible. And it is shown like this! Trenches heaped up with the killed and the wounded whose bodies are trampled on by the alive, hurling themselves at the enemy to fight hand-to hand... Violence in action and in a lull... Soldiers' sweat, and blood, and abuse... What a moment when a Red Army soldier is caught red-handed, raping a civilian woman! The 'red' commander indulgently offers him to marry her – or to be shot and killed! What the soldier answers and what happens next, is so special
In all fairness I must say, the Poles are not that poor wretch. Time and again, certain Polish hawkish circles would goad this honourable Slavic power into reckless wars where the Poles, not reckoning with domestic casualties and, all the more, giving their enemies no quarter, would try their best to, if not defeating, do them maximum harm, spoil all their plans