With fire and sword (film)
With fire and sword (DVD title: Crusader 5: With fire and sword ) is a Polish monumental film from 1999 . The literary film adaptation of the historical novel of the same name by Henryk Sienkiewicz with the original title Ogniem i mieczem as part of a history trilogy premiered in cinemas on February 12, 1999. At the time, this was the most expensive Polish film of all time.
action
The knight Jan Skrzetuski, an envoy of the magnate Jeremi Wiśniowiecki , the starost of Hadjatsch and Kaniw near the Dnepr , met the beautiful Helena Kurcewiczówna on a trip in 1648, with whom he fell in love. But Helena is promised to the Cossack Jurko Bohun . When the ataman of the Zaporozhian Cossacks , Bogdan Chmielnicki , plans an uprising against the Polish Szlachta , Jan tries to warn his lover, but is captured by the Tatar ruler Tuhaj Bej . Because Jan once saved the life of the Cossack Bogdan, the latter helps him to escape. But the Chmielnicki uprising begins, and that benefits the Cossack Bogun.
background
A Pole and a Cossack fall in love with the same woman: their rivalry reveals the background of the story, the Cossack uprising led by Bohdan Chmielnicki to regain control of their land from the Polish Szlachta . Historical events form a framework in which fictional and historical characters mix: the film completes something that began more than 30 years ago: the film adaptation of one of the greatest works in Polish literature, namely the trilogy of novels by Sienkiewicz ( Jerzy Hoffman filmed the third part 1969 and the second part 1974).
The director wanted to start the new monumental film before 1980, in 1987 the then Minister of Culture gave him the green light and a substantial financial grant - but two years later, when Solidarność was in power in Poland , the grant was canceled again. Jerzy Hoffman needed a lot of time to find sponsors for the film and managed to finance over 100 actors, around 10,000 extras, 250 horses, 13 film locations and the lavish buildings and equipment that correspond to the historical models. The film cost 8.5 million US dollars. It was above all the atmosphere of the film that attracted the viewer to the cinemas: the quasi-Old Polish language, the clothes and equipment of the actors, and finally the talent of the actors. The international audience recognized Izabella Scorupco in the role of Helena, who had played in Golden Eye with Pierce Brosnan in 1995 .
Political background
To strengthen the heart - was the idea of the novel trilogy. It came into being when, as a result of the partitions, there was no Polish state. Sienkiewicz reminded readers of the times when Poland was strong and knew how to defend itself against every enemy in Europe. His characters should be role models: heroic and virtuous, noble, proud, always ready to die for faith, for the king, for the fatherland or even for the beloved. All the longings and memories supposedly shape the Poles to this day. With Fire and Sword , Pan Wołodyjowski and The Flood , a historical trilogy of novels, were a kind of “heart strengthening” for the citizens of Poland, which is dependent on Moscow . Therefore, the filming of the first part With Fire and Sword , which is about the fight of the Poles against the Ukrainians, was not possible until well into the 1980s because of the tensions between the People's Republic of Poland and the Ukrainian SSR , and Jerzy Hoffman began in 1960 initially with the filming of the third and last part (Pan Wołodyjowski). Although With Fire and Sword is the first part of the Sienkiewicz trilogy, it was last made into a film.
Even today, the film appeals to many Poles because the people, shaken by internal conflicts, like to look back at their past, in which the Poles were winners and no “big brother” could dictate anything to them, whether from Moscow, Brussels or Washington. Jerzy Hoffman himself described this film as the Polish-Ukrainian Gone with the Wind .
Reviews
The monumental film was criticized because of some inaccuracies in the presentation of historical facts. According to the Polish magazine Wprost , the film emphasizes above all the success of the Cossacks and their positive character traits and puts that of Poles in the service of the ongoing political tensions between Poland and Ukraine. The film scenes of the first battle between Poles and Cossacks , the Battle of Schowti Vody , do not reflect what really happened. They give the impression that the Poles were quickly driven out by the Cossacks and that the Hussaria showed unnecessary bravado in the face of bad weather. The fact is that the number of Cossack horsemen far exceeded that of the Polish Hussaria (especially after Cossacks, who were allied with the Hussaria, defected to Chmielnicki's forces) and the battle lasted three weeks, even if the Polish Szlachta lost him. The Polish press criticized Jerzy Hoffman for accepting the imprecise adaptation of the novel in order not to make an anti-Ukrainian film. So claims z. B. the left Trybuna that the main hero Jan Skrzetuski is by no means as bigoted as in the novel and that the film does not serve to “strengthen the heart”, but rather shows the direction “to reason”.
Jerzy Hoffman was aware from the outset that the film would be controversially discussed and criticized: “Sienkiewicz's historical novel is still seen by some Ukrainians as anti-Ukrainian. I understand the problem, but when I was an intellectual at a conference in Kiev , many of the people I spoke to had read the novel carefully and quoted entire passages in which Sienkiewicz criticized the Polish Szlachta as harshly as the Cossacks. It was clear to both sides that the outcome of this tragic conflict would be the eventful decline of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth . I am very aware that the film can arouse those Ukrainians who blame the Poles for everything, but also those Poles who blame everything that is bad about Ukrainians. Of course, my film will not convince the radical minded. [...] My film ends with the last words of the Sienkiewicz novel: 'Hate poisoned the hearts of two brother nations'. "
The lexicon of international films described Mit Feuer und Schwert as "an epic [...] history painting with convincing actors that mixes historical facts with the adventurous love story and effective battle scenes".
literature
- Henryk Sienkiewicz: With Fire and Sword. Fredonia Books, 2002, ISBN 1-4101-0057-X .
- Jerzy R. Krzyanowski: The Trilogy Companion: A Reader's Guide to the Trilogy of Henryk Sienkiewicz. Hippocrene Books, 1992, ISBN 0-87052-221-3 .
Web links
- With Fire and Sword in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Bujnicki Tadeusz: Sienkiewicz w polskiej świadomości historycznej i potocznej . Retrieved December 27, 2013.
- Bujnicki Tadeusz: Sienkiewicz w polskiej świadomości historycznej i potocznej . Retrieved December 27, 2013.
- Ogniem i mieczem w ukraińskich oczach - Zaproszenie do dialogu . Retrieved December 27, 2013.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Marek Trenkler: The most expensive Polish film production of all time. In: Telepolis . February 9, 1999, accessed February 23, 2013 .
- ↑ Henryk Sienkiewicz, according Jerzeg Hoffman: Między "Ogniem i mieczem". In: Wprost . February 14, 1999, accessed February 23, 2013 (Polish).
- ^ Battle of Yellow Waters (Żółte Wody), 1648
- ^ Battle of Yellow Waters (Żółte Wody), 1648
- ^ Literatura a film. Adaptacje i ekranizacje dzieł lieratury. ( Memento from December 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Retrieved February 3, 2017 (Polish).
- ↑ With fire and sword. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .