This review applies to the butchered version, not the original 234 minute version. The first half follows the exploits of Rafal, a peasant farmer who hangs out with the flamboyant aristocrats during Napoleon's sweep over Europe. Only in the second half does the film pick up with the battle scenes as Wajda's surreal interpretation enters the massacre of the Spaniards. The black and white photography is absolutely beautiful if you can see it on a decent print and the right screen ratio.
3 Reviews
Compulsively watchable historical epic, even as it starts to get disturbing.
DrTuvok24 February 2024
Warning: Spoilers
'Ashes' stands as perhaps the most wildly entertaining film Andrzej Wajda ever made, even as it gets increasingly disturbing, pessimistic, and sad. The story, encompassing a wide canvas of 1800s Polish life and Napoleonic warfare, is suffused by turn with hope and despair, beauty and horror, sustained for nearly four hours. It's a long epic, but there's so much happening that the time flies past, and Wajda gives the pacing an effective boost by breaking the narrative up into multiple chapters.
The narrative follows two friends: Rafal (the truly ubiquitous Daniel Olbrychski in his debut role, later the star of the later, even huger Polish epic 'Potop') and Krzysztof (Boguslaw Kierc). Their adventures as they meet, join the armies of Napoleon, and split up to fight different battles comprise the bulk of the narrative, and lead to many memorable sequences. The opening sleigh-ride scene. The alcohol-infused partying in 1800s Warsaw high society. A chase across a river of ice floes. Rafal ends up being inducted into the Freemasons (some shades of War and Peace there), and during the ritual he encounters an old love interest. And Napoleon towers over all in his few cameos, misplaced as a figure of hope and freedom.
The most notable scene that doesn't work is the infamous one of the horse death. Wajda actually threw a horse off a cliff (killing it immediately) for this scene, but all we end up seeing is a close-up of the head of Krzysztof's horse falling out of frame, and then the rider staggering forward on foot. I'm not sure if this scene was censored on the print I watched, but if you're going to kill a horse for a movie, at least show it. Otherwise the horse dies for nothing.
Outside of a few moments like that the film is incredible on a technical level. It's gorgeously shot in crisp black and white (which the director later regretted, thinking it made the film look dated, an opinion I cannot agree with) and the overall cinematography looks incredible. The production values are through the roof, especially during the battle scenes with their hundreds of extras.
The first battle is the weakest, with the Polish soldiers marching forward and politely stabbing at the enemy soldiers, but by the time we get to the Siege of Zaragoza all bets are off. As the soldiers march through the city there's a scene where some asylum is opened and a horde of gibbering madmen and women descend on them; it's unbelievably creepy. But then what follows is even worse: a riot of pillage, sacrilege, and rape that plays like something out of the Fourth Crusade. It all leads up to what is possible the most effective scene in the film, when Krzysztof's superior officer becomes disillusioned and leaves the city for Poland, only to be betrayed by his guide, robbed and killed. The other men mock the dead man as a cowardly traitor and leave the body lying, with Krzysztof as the only one trying to bury it as the wind foils his efforts. It's difficult to describe the heightened sadness and emotion of this scene; it seems deliberately reminiscent of Antigone burying her brother in the Sophocles play. Moments like this are when Wajda's opulent, baroque style really soars.
But overall, even with the dazzling displays of images and emotion, this is a dark, even embittered film, and becomes more so by the sucker-punch coda. One could accuse Wajda of simply taking a wreaking ball to Polish national mythology, which may perhaps be a valid interpretation of 'Ashes'. However, I believe the point of the film is to illustrate how Poland has been manipulated and abused on the historical stage, often through the weaknesses and faults of her own people. And who knows?-given how Poland today is beginning the slow but inexorable slide into dysfunctional EU agendas, maybe that message will remain relevant in the future.
It's a pity that the film has lapsed into obscurity and has become quite difficult to find. This is Wajda's third best film, after 'The Promised Land' and 'Kanal'.
The narrative follows two friends: Rafal (the truly ubiquitous Daniel Olbrychski in his debut role, later the star of the later, even huger Polish epic 'Potop') and Krzysztof (Boguslaw Kierc). Their adventures as they meet, join the armies of Napoleon, and split up to fight different battles comprise the bulk of the narrative, and lead to many memorable sequences. The opening sleigh-ride scene. The alcohol-infused partying in 1800s Warsaw high society. A chase across a river of ice floes. Rafal ends up being inducted into the Freemasons (some shades of War and Peace there), and during the ritual he encounters an old love interest. And Napoleon towers over all in his few cameos, misplaced as a figure of hope and freedom.
The most notable scene that doesn't work is the infamous one of the horse death. Wajda actually threw a horse off a cliff (killing it immediately) for this scene, but all we end up seeing is a close-up of the head of Krzysztof's horse falling out of frame, and then the rider staggering forward on foot. I'm not sure if this scene was censored on the print I watched, but if you're going to kill a horse for a movie, at least show it. Otherwise the horse dies for nothing.
Outside of a few moments like that the film is incredible on a technical level. It's gorgeously shot in crisp black and white (which the director later regretted, thinking it made the film look dated, an opinion I cannot agree with) and the overall cinematography looks incredible. The production values are through the roof, especially during the battle scenes with their hundreds of extras.
The first battle is the weakest, with the Polish soldiers marching forward and politely stabbing at the enemy soldiers, but by the time we get to the Siege of Zaragoza all bets are off. As the soldiers march through the city there's a scene where some asylum is opened and a horde of gibbering madmen and women descend on them; it's unbelievably creepy. But then what follows is even worse: a riot of pillage, sacrilege, and rape that plays like something out of the Fourth Crusade. It all leads up to what is possible the most effective scene in the film, when Krzysztof's superior officer becomes disillusioned and leaves the city for Poland, only to be betrayed by his guide, robbed and killed. The other men mock the dead man as a cowardly traitor and leave the body lying, with Krzysztof as the only one trying to bury it as the wind foils his efforts. It's difficult to describe the heightened sadness and emotion of this scene; it seems deliberately reminiscent of Antigone burying her brother in the Sophocles play. Moments like this are when Wajda's opulent, baroque style really soars.
But overall, even with the dazzling displays of images and emotion, this is a dark, even embittered film, and becomes more so by the sucker-punch coda. One could accuse Wajda of simply taking a wreaking ball to Polish national mythology, which may perhaps be a valid interpretation of 'Ashes'. However, I believe the point of the film is to illustrate how Poland has been manipulated and abused on the historical stage, often through the weaknesses and faults of her own people. And who knows?-given how Poland today is beginning the slow but inexorable slide into dysfunctional EU agendas, maybe that message will remain relevant in the future.
It's a pity that the film has lapsed into obscurity and has become quite difficult to find. This is Wajda's third best film, after 'The Promised Land' and 'Kanal'.
surprisingly interesting and good
krzysiektom4 December 2009
Just watched it for the 1st time. Wow, that must be one of Wajda's best films. An epic story of a young impoverished nobleman Rafal that takes place in the Napoleonic time. The first part deals more with the main character coming of age and also tells a lot about life in Poland: slavery and exploitation of peasants by noblemen, Polish ways of life, poverty, differences among social classes, the differences between the Polish and the ruling Habsburg mentalities. What is refreshing and positively surprising is the criticism of the Polish ways of life compared to those of the imposing Habsburgs, such an objectivity is surprising in a Polish movie. Well, we may consider the communist regime as partly responsible for that, as their propaganda liked to criticize everything "nobleman" from the past and emphasize the negative aspects of Poland before the II WW - like the lack of equality and justice. Nevermind, the result is a refreshing detachment and objectivity. There also a plot about an older brother, who defending the right of his peasants to be free gets into a shooting duel with his aristocratic patron and gets killed. His younger brother sees it but bears no grudge against the killer, which may sound stupid and crazy, unless we consider that such were the customs and mentality of the time, many men got killed in duels. The second part is more "epic" and more batallistic, with one amazingly incisive and shocking episode when the Polish troopers in the Napoleonic service, after the siege of Saragossa in Spain enter the city and rape the nuns and other women there, with the almost gleeful and cynical approval of the Polish officers. It is eye opening, provocative, bold, very objective, self-critical, anti-war, passionate, humanistic approach from the filmmakers. No wonder the film reached the Polish cinemas only in a severely cut version. Such a self-flagellation, of the own national myth, is courageous and mature for any artist, any time and place, my hat off to Wajda for that. Another shocker comes when the Polish Napoleonic troops are shown massacring the black members of the Napoleonic army in Santo Domingo. It is known that the Poles brutally suppressed the anti-slavery rebellion there, but it was not never shown on any other film. They joined Napolean army for "egalite, fraternite et liberte", hoping to spread these values and one day free Poland, but instead they fought Spanish in... Spain and killed Dominicanos at... Dominicana. There is yet another shocker: a gang rape scene (though shot in a tasty, delicate, almost poetic manner) of Rafal's lover somewhere on a mountain. The fascinating detail is that apparently the brutal rapists were the highlander rebels and bandits, who are kept in popular hight regard in Poland as those who fought against the rich and were in fact noble and just (the popular cult hero Janosik). Far from it here, it is another example of this film's questioning of the national myths. And lastly, the film does not end on a positive note. All of this would make such a film impossible nowadays, whether in Poland or in Hollywood. It is well worth watching, the entire 226 minutes of it.
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