Actually, I like war movies, but that's just a drama.Just sad :-(
Plot summary
Based on a well-known Polish novel with the same title the movie re-tells a true life story of a group of scouts called ''Szare Szeregi'' (Gray Ranks) during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw and the liberation of one of its members (imprisoned and tortured by the Germans) through a maverick military action in board daylight right under the enemy's nose known ''Action at the Arsenal'' which was the biggest single feat of the sort undertaken by a youth resistance organisation in all of occupied Europe during WWII.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Movie Reviews
mediocre
Polish true life story of the boys who fought back in WW2
This is based on a true episode during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw in WWII and is from a novel of the same title. The 'Szare Szeregi' or Gray Ranks of 'The Scouts' as they were known fought with the Home Army and got involved with low key sabotage against the invaders to fight for their country. As the iron fist of the Nazis came down ever harder, the young men decided that pamphlets and flags were not enough and so decided to take up the inevitable armed struggle.
This tells of a particular operation in which they set about to free a captured comrade who has been taken by the Germans. Now there are scenes here of torture and up front and personal violence. At one point in the film they say 'let the living never lose hope' and that is a perfect phrase to sum up why they fought against impossible odds with a random set of weapons and minimum training.
This is a very well made and acted film, it is also genuinely moving in places. Just ignore the cover art on this as ever it is misleading. The makeup is totally excellent and the period detail is spot on too. The original title is 'Kamienie na szaniec' or 'Stones for the rampart' in reference to them having to be as stones in their defence of their homes. This is as I said a great film and I hope a fitting tribute to these brave young men and indeed women who did the right thing in those dark days of history.
Starts promisingly but deteriorates into poorly made schlock and torture-porn
A betrayal of the real story as told in the book - simply a poorly made film, not only does it fail to craft characters well or tell a compelling story (unbelievably so given the rich source material),it rapidly descends into gratuitous, laughably over-the-top torture-porn that seems to want to whip up a sense of aggrievedness and instill a worldview of fetishized, exalted victimhood in Polish viewers. Mostly though, it's just exceedingly boring. An atrocious piece of work that's a slap in the face for the real Warsaw Uprising heroes.