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In Reply to: Oh, the torture! posted by Victor Khomenko on March 23, 2002 at 11:31:05:
It was close to what I remembered - cruel and hopeless, like the war itself. In depicting the war one question always titilates me: what is the purpose of THAT particular depiction? Is is to attract the male croud? To boost the national spirit and the recruitment? To give us the shot at understanting the historic events? To win the Oscar? Or to make us understand the scope of human sufferings?Given all these choices it is not surprising that here in the US we have left most of them behind and simply went for the trash heap - and tinsel. The anti-war expressive means were ready and well developed back in the fifties, when Wahjda made his films. But the reason these didn't go well with the popcorn croud meant that we would embark on development of a new approach - the one that eventually brought us up to the plastic wars of the SPR and Pearl Harbor. So plastic that the partition between these and the Star Wars is getting more and more blurred... hard to believe.
Kanal speaks in low voice and you listen. It needs no loud sounds, as the TRUE horror is still in the faces, not in the mock-ups. And it grabs you like no SPR ever could and it leaves you exhausted and desperate - such is its power.
It was also interesting to see the sequences in the opening part of the film that Kubrick later borrowed - almost lifted directly - for his FMJ. Here they have a far more eerie feeling to them, though.
Follow Ups:
KANAL is an honest attempt to distill and capture the feel of the actual events of War; without the embellishment of jingoism or hagiography which is the kiss of death to most War films IMHO. It's a story that really needs to be told in this manner, and Wajda does a superb job.
I would rate "Talvisota", The Winter War, by Finnish director Pekka Parikka as an equalling gripping depiction.
Indeed, there is no substitute for talent.
Eric
Tokyo*+
Thanks Eric, if we keep going like this (this VHS was $45...) all my 401k will fit on one video shelf.It better be good.
I imagine only few folks would be interested in that "local" war and its history. It is however extremely interesting from many perspectives. And it really didn't end in 1940 - its full resolution didn't come until 1945.
...that's a household name alright. Thank you Eric, I shall put it on my list, but I am not too hopeful.Perhaps someone could let us know if he spots it anywhere... maybe sjb?
Amazon have it; the 3 Video stores I go to regularly in Tokyo have all had their copies stolen, it's a very very rare occurence here and may in a strange way reflect on how good a film The Winter War is.
I've always followed the war genre as very occasionally there will be a Kanal, a Das Boot, or Tarkovskys Ivans Life is not bad; of course there are disappointments like "Stalingrad" (and I don't mean the totally apalling USA film of the same name!).
The Winter War is a lot like Kanal insofar as it transcends the actual event and shows regular people reacting in extraordinary situations, and doesn't scream "Antiwar" either.
While both director and film are obscure; as you would know with Wajda, that doesn't mean anything about the quality of their work, and particularly not this one, it's a gem.
Eric
Tokyo*
***The Winter War is a lot like Kanal insofar as it transcends the actual event and shows regular people reacting in extraordinary situations, and doesn't scream "Antiwar" either.That is so very true and I have been always saying that the true horror is always in the faces of the participants, not in the bangs and smoke. That is why the best war (OK, OK, anti-war...) films usually have almost no shooting at all. To my mind immediately come things like Forbidden Games and Ballad of a Soldier - both unforgettable and ultimate in their poignancy films.
It's amazing what you can accomplish with only a story and people who can ACT.I thought one of the most unintentionaaly funny moments in recent years came during "Shakespeare in Love" when Ben Affleck showed up pretending(!) to be a bad actor.
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