Product: Pan Tadeusz (2000)
Rating: 4.0
Great Historical Film, but a Little Slow
Andrej Wajda's Pan Tadeusz - pronounced, roughly "Pon Tadoosh", meaning 'Sir Thaddeus' - is based on the namesake poem by Adam Mickiewicz, and covers the life of the young Count Tadeusz in the era right before Napoleon invades. Around this illustrious figure, a cast of glittering characters swirls; a vengeful warden, a flirtatious aunt, feuding nobility, a priest with a secret to hide, all looking forward to the one event which promises to change their lives forever: the invasion of Napoleon, and the throwing off of Russian imperialism. Pan Tadeusz is a Romeo & Juliet style love story; Tadeusz, member of one warring family, falls in love with Zosia, of the other, to marry such that the ancient land feud will be settled so the war can be turned on the Russians.Visually, Pan Tadeusz is amazing. Every scene is a treat to the eyes, from the verdant forests to the east-meeets-west Sarmatian decorations that adorn every house. Wajda has come very close to capturing the essence of the beauty of the fatherland that Mickiewicz conveyed in his epic poem.The acting, too, is top notch, bringing together much of Poland's finest talent to tell this important story. Pan Tadeusz has many major characters, but the viewer becomes intimately familiar with them all by the end of the movie.The story is compelling, too, especially for anyone with an understanding of Polish History. Once, Poland was a great nation, one that defeated the Ottoman Empire in war, and crushed Russia in another. Yet, as Prussia, Austria, and Russia rose to power, they saw Poland as an easy victim, and jointly conquered the nation in 1772 in a series of Partitions. Russia took the lion's share, and ever since, Poland resisted their control. Pan Tadeusz takes place in 1811-12, when Napoleon swept across Europe, and through Poland, giving the Poles a chance to rise up and ressurect their nation as the mighty Fenix. Yet, as the film closes, Napoleon's army is marching to its doom in Russia. For Poles, this film is deeply nostalgic, harkening back to the days when Pole resisted Russian. Indeed, Poland only became free of Russian control in 1989, with the fall of the Soviet Union, which is to say that all of the adult viewers in Poland know personally what it meant to resist Russian control. For they, like the characters of Pan Tadeusz, rose up against their Russian oppressors.The film is not without a major flaw. Pan Tadeusz is extremely slow, running at 2.5 hours when it could have been trimmed down to 2 hours. Wajda included a number of scenes which add nothing to the movie, though were important in the poem. Among these is a slow-motion mushroom picking scene, several scenes focusing on the same swamp scenery (with no action), a five-minute long Polska dance scene which could have been 15 seconds, and so forth. Much of this could have been cut without hurting the movie, and in the process made it more engaging.Pan Tadeusz is a foreign film, so will open doors to another culture for those willing to step through. In one movie, you get a sense of the basic struggle inherent in Polish history 1772-1989, a struggle of people more devoted to liberty than any other. The subtitles which guide you through this journey are top notch, and very little meaning is lost in translation. This may be because Pan Tadeusz is based on the verses of its namesake epic poem, as are the carefully worked out translations. Thus, the dialogue in both Polish and English is rich and poetic.I fully recommend Pan Tadeusz for anyone interested in understanding something of another culture, but do come to the movie with an open mind.