How I Unleashed World War II (1970) User Reviews

Polish classic World War II comedy

[pibwl · 9/10 · 13 January 2018]

The film is one of classic Polish comedies, often aired in Polish TV, and I like it quite much. The main hero is Polish soldier Private Franek Dolas, a charming wangler, who is convinced, that he had started World War Two with his accidental shot (it is a bravura life role of Marian Kociniak). He escapes from a POW camp, and then desperately tries to join the Polish Army, being organized in Great Britain. The film is quite long three-part trilogy, but we follow adventures of Private Dolas from 1 September 1939 towards the end of the war, across Nazi occupied Europe, Middle East and North Africa. And there is also a romance plot in last part.

The whole story is inspired by fates and stories of many Polish soldiers, who escaped from occupied country and got to French or British allies to continue fighting. It was truly a difficult task during the war, because they had to travel illegally through neutral or Nazi-allied countries, avoiding imprisonment or internment. Many of them found themselves eventually in North Africa, where Polish units fought on British side in 1941-1942 against Germans and Italians. One patrol even captured Italian military bordello indeed...

Since Franek Dolas travels through different countries, a humour mainly explores national stereotypes and cultural clashes, but in rather gentle and non-derogatory way. So, the Germans are unable to write down an overcomplicated fake Polish name (Brzeczyszczykiewicz), the Yugoslavians are hospitable, while the British are stiff and care about nothing during a tea time (it also was an experience of Polish soldiers, raised in different culture). On the other hand, the Poles, personalized by the main hero, are reckless and always get into trouble. In fact, Private Dolas succeeds in many things only by accident. French captain is always drunk on wine and wants to fight for Marshall Petain - but on the other hand, his soldiers join the Free French to continue fighting. The Italians try to surrender, or they fight only for their women - but we also see brave Italian commandos. A great and remarkable thing in this film is, that all characters speak their own languages, what makes language barriers obvious, and increases reality feeling.

The film was made as black and white, but gained much thanks to a digital colorization.

Great WW2 adventure/comedy

[APtoThe · 9/10 · 26 December 2020]

As a Polish speaker and fan of WW2 films, this movie ticks all the boxes you would want from a WW2 adventure/comedy. One may describe the film as a cross between 'The Great Escape' (1964) and 'Forrest Gump' (1994). A simple mans comedic journey through a tumultuous time period in history, driven by his impassioned will to fight for his country.

One of the best comedies in the world

[osigotx · 9/10 · 31 July 2021]

This is one of the best comedies in the world. Very subtle and pleasant humor in such a humor-heavy setting like war. In terms of mood and light style, the film can be compared to "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" and Taika Waititi's films.

One of the best polish war time comedy if not the best one

[gownoszambelana · 10/10 · 7 March 2005]

It's a story about a polish rifleman - Franek Dolas.It begins on 1st October of 1939 when Nazis invade Poland.Generally the whole movie is divided into three episodes.In the first one Franek gets himself into German pow camp.He is making his best trying to escape but everything he does gets him only into more trouble.Frankly speaking Franek is a kind of guy that is always getting into some kind of trouble.When he wants to do something right the result is opposite every time. Through all three episodes we can see Franek's funniest adventures in occupied Poland,Yugoslavia,Italy,few other European countries and even Africa where he joins French Foreign Legion. I think that it should be very interesting and funny for Europeans to see what the Poles think about them and why we sometimes laugh about English or Italians for example :P

One of the polish cinematography brightest jewels!!!

[greycat_r · 10/10 · 1 September 2005]

This movie is one of the best polish movies there were ever made! The great story, the patriotism, the characters and most of all the irresistible humor have made this movie so special, that it entertains viewers of many generations! While most war movies show the terror of it, this movie shows it's brighter side. The side where people are brave, patriotic and they managed to do the impossible! Also shows how true is an old polish quote: "If a Pole wants to do something, he'll do it no matter how!" If you'd ask me, I'd gave you examples from my family that could prove those incredible situations! Hope you all will see it and like it as much as I do! Greycat R! Krystian Andrzej Dylewski

this is amazing movie , hmm the whole trylogy is superb

[hoax1 · 7 July 2003]

this film is so funny and show so much of 2ww in parodic way .

i love it for this and i love the lead hero who is playing with german soldiers :D

its 1 of my most favorite movies . u must watch it :)

War comedy that never gets boring

[FAJNYFILM · 9/10 · 29 April 2022]

Long 3 part funny story of a guy who travels all wartime Europe in almost every uniform.

Great cast of famous actors o the era. And some dialogues became classic.

One of, if not the greatest Polish movie ever.

[pmaleszewski · 10/10 · 8 November 2023]

Contrary to what that one comment on the bottom says, there are so many moments during this movie that are so hilarious that you can hardly contain yourself. Its funny, and yet gives you a thing to think about. It's a classic and you won't be disappointed. The whole language realism makes it even better. I will say though, it is an especially long movie, consisting of 3 parts, each about an hour, but it is still worth every minute. I have heard people say that there is nothing funny about ww2. Well this exists, and this came out in a rather dark time in Poland's history, and that really goes to show how you can really make something terrible into something enjoyable. The fact that this came out from a communist film studio and that it is better than most modern movies is truly something else.

Dolas the cannoneer: two different impressions

[konstantinkliushkin · 6/10 · 26 May 2020]

In Polish the movie was called "Jak rozpetalem druga wojne swiatowa". Translated into Russian, the name of the film looks like - "How I Unleashed World War II". But in our country it was released under the title "The adventures of Dolas the cannoneer". Judging by the extremely small number of reviews on this film on IMDB and on the complete absence of references to this film on the Rotten Tomatoes website, this picture is practically unknown in the world. Except, perhaps, for Poland and Hungary. There is no data on the demonstration of the film in the USSR, but I definitely remember that I watched it being pupil of of either the 6th or 7th grade, i.e., somewhere in the beginning of 70-s. And the second time I watched this movie recently. And it was interesting to compare my impressions with me then, half a century younger, and today. I remember that then I laughed wildly at the session. A lot of funny moments in this movie. Today, voluntarily or involuntarily, other points attracted attention. Well, firstly, I remember exactly that then, in the beginning of the 70s, the film consisted of two episodes and lasted a total of somewhere from two and a half to three hours. The full version, which I watched recently, lasts almost 4 hours and consists of 3 episodes. This is how much was cut out of the film by Soviet censorship! Weigh roughly - a whole third of the film. However, neither then nor today would I be able to sit in the movie theater for 4 hours on this film. It's good that now there is a lot of opportunities to watch movies at home on the couch. Secondly, during a recent viewing, I drew attention to a phrase uttered by one of the female characters when the action took place in Yugoslavia: "The Germans will be here soon. They have already occupied Hungary." Then, in childhood, my friends and I did not pay much attention to this phrase. Of course, bad fascists occupied good Hungary. This is today, when we know that Hungary was the original and most faithful satellite of Nazi Germany and fought against the Red Army until the very end, when even the Germans themselves began to give up, this phrase cuts the ear. Since the Nazis had no need to "occupy" Hungary. At least, in 1939-1940. Thirdly, I do not remember whether the episode with the Polish officers in the POW camp was present in the version that was shown in Soviet times, or not. Most likely not. Now compare with numerous photo documents about the camp conditions for Soviet officers in German camps for POWs. And as they say, feel the difference. Such a comparison is especially relevant today, when some Polish, and not only Polish, politicians decided to attribute the beginning of the World War II exclusively to Germany and the Soviet Union. However, I think that everyone who watched this film in the 70s and watched it today will be able to find other changes in their impressions.

Nothing funny

[Galicius · 2/10 · 9 December 2009]

This film is so bad that we didn't even laugh once and it's supposed to be a comedy. The only reason we continued watching it was that we are trying to catch up on Polish cinema and we were thinking maybe there would be some redeeming value in the end. There wasn't. There is a second and third part to this film. We ordered both parts 1 and 2 and we ended up watching both but we almost gave up in the middle of the second film and promptly canceled part 3. There is nothing funny in this supposed comedy. It's stupid. Worse Polish films we saw. It reminded me a little bit of Hogan's Heroes but this was worse. Why would we want to make a comedy about WWII in Poland? There was nothing funny about WWII. I read Stanislaw Grzesiuk's "Piec lat kacetu" ("Five Years in a Concentration Camp") where he uses humor to survive a terrible Gusen camp but that's a different story.