The Crusaders (film)
The Crusaders (DVD title: The Last Battle of the Crusaders ) is a Polish monumental film from 1960 . The film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Henryk Sienkiewicz with the original title Krzyżacy premiered in Polish cinemas on September 2, 1960.
action
The film action begins on July 15, 1410 in the Battle of Grunwald near Grunwald with Ulrich von Jungingen's strict request to King Władysław II Jagiełło of Poland-Lithuania and Grand Duke Witold to fight for life and death. A flashback to the year 1407 follows: Crusaders of the Teutonic Order ride with arrested Polish merchants from Płock on behalf of their Commander Siegfried von Löwe, singing and confident of victory through the Mazovian forests of the Polish Count Jurand von Spychów, who got in their way with his followers represents. He demands the release of his Polish compatriots, who had only fetched flour from the mill. Since the merger of Poland and Lithuania in 1386 to form the so-called aristocratic republic of Poland-Lithuania, such provocations by the Teutonic Order increased. Lithuanian merchants were prevented from coming to Poland and Polish merchants from entering Lithuania to do business. The Knights of the Order of Commander Siegfried von Löwe on the border between the Teutonic Order and Polish Mazovia are now taking Count Jurand's behavior as an opportunity to set fire to his forest and murder his wife. Count Jurand swears revenge.
Princess Anna Danuta of Mazovia , on her way to Krakow to see King Władysław Jagiełło, stops for a rest with her courtiers in a manor where Maćko von Bogdaniec and his nephew Zbyszko von Bogdaniec also stop - both are Lithuanian knights of Grand Duke Witold . You can hear Count Jurand's daughter, Danusia von Spychów, singing here. Zbyszko falls in love immediately, asks the princess for the hand of the singer and, with her consent, makes the knightly vow, etc. a. restoring the honor of their family. Following the invitation of King Władysław Jagiełło, they all travel on to Krakow, but Zbyszko, almost overwhelmed by the knightly sense of duty and honor, wants to take the first opportunity to restore the honor of his beloved and inadvertently seizes Grand Commander Kuno von Lichtenstein as the ambassador of Grand Master Konrad von Jungingen on the way from Malbork to Krakow, who is under the protection of his own Polish king. Zbyszko is now sentenced to death and is only released at the last minute thanks to an old Polish folk custom: Danusia puts a white cloth over Zbyszko and publicly declares that she wants to be his wife. According to the custom, the engagement takes place immediately. Everyone is leaving.
The outrage of Commander Siegfried von Löwe and his knights of the order over the entire Spychów clan of Mazovia, which borders on the German order areas, is now so excessive that they burn down parts of the Spychów castle and insidiously bring Danusia von Spichów into their power to kill her father, to lure Count Jurand von Spychów to Szczytno at the Ortelsburg. In desperation, he actually follows her there, but is psychologically broken down in the castle and taken prisoner in an argument. Commander Siegfried von Löwe sends his "son", the friar Rotgier, to Prince Janusz I of Mazovia, to insidiously announce the disfavor of his Count Jurand and to demand the transfer of the Spychów property to the Teutonic Order. Rotgier throws the feud glove for anyone who doubts the statements of the order. Zbyszko, also on site, seizes the glove and saves - as usual in a feud - in a public duel with Rotgier in the presence of Prince Janusz I, not only the honor of the noble family from Spychów, but also their property. Commander Siegfried von Löwe, with his dead “son” Rotgier in front of his eyes, then desecrated the captured Count Jurand von Spychów in the worst possible way by blinding him, sewing his eyes shut, cutting off his tongue, chopping off his right hand and returning home to Polish Masovian Spychów sends.
Meanwhile, Zbyszko von Bogdaniec rides with Fulko de Lorche, a knight from Lorraine , to King Władysław Jagiełło in Krakow to report the full extent of the treachery of the Teutonic Order. On Zbyszko's complaint, the king, having just received new reports of massive hindrances to his merchants, has initial preparations for war made, but expressly orders all measures to be taken towards a peaceful solution to the conflict. As ambassadors of the king, Zbyszko and Fulko de Lorche now travel to Malbork on March 30, 1407 to see Grand Master Konrad von Jungingen in the Teutonic Order Castle and bring their complaint to him. But before the Grand Master can deal with the problem, he dies of natural causes and in his last words warns of a war with Poland-Lithuania, which is certain to be the downfall of the Teutonic Order. His brother Ulrich von Jungingen is elected as the successor to the Grand Master, who immediately orders the war against paganism in Lithuania and also against the Polish people, who as accomplices of Lithuanian paganism are not true Christians. In 1409 he officially handed over the feud letter to Poland-Lithuania and with it the declaration of war that led to the fatal battle of Grunwald on July 15, 1410 .
background
The film was released on July 15, 1960, on the 550th anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald. It was the Polish proposal for the 1961 Academy Awards , but it was not included in the nominee list. In the USA the film ran from January 1962 under the title Black Cross . In Germany it was shown in GDR cinemas from December 29, 1961 . On February 12, 2009, the film was released in Germany under the title The Last Battle of the Crusaders in a 174-minute version on DVD.
Differences from historical events
The image of the Battle of Grunwald shown in the film deviates from historical facts in the following points:
- The use of pitfalls by the German knights is unlikely. Both armies had arrived on the battlefield in the late morning of July 15, 1410, and the forces of the enemy came as no surprise to either. The Knights of the Order had just enough time to prepare this type of ambush.
- The film suggests that the Teutonic Order army received a lot of support from Western Europe. But there were far fewer in Grunwald than in earlier years (especially from the German-speaking countries), so that the knights of the order primarily fought the battle alone.
- In the composition of the troops of King Władysław Jagiełłos there were no formed infantry divisions as independent, tactical and organizational units.
- The large Polish-Lithuanian flag is shown in the film during the battle in the hands of the knights of the order, but there is no historical evidence of this.
- In the film you can see some knights wearing lace-up shoes (element of armor to protect the feet), but these are not yet known in Europe at the beginning of the 15th century.
criticism
The lexicon of international film saw an “epically broad, monumental film that meticulously reconstructs the political and social context of that time. Pathos and melodrama of the patriotic history of building are largely relativized by masterful camera work and color compositions. "
Web links
- The Crusaders in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The crusaders on flimmerkiste.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c cf. filmweb.pl
- ^ A b Andrzej Nadolski: Grunwald 1410. Bellona, Warszawa 2008.
- ↑ The Crusaders. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .