A Generation

A guide to war movies I read years ago had a perfect list of stereotypes and staples of the genre.  Each specific example had been used several times before, some of them repeated over and over again. One of my favorites discussed French resistance fighters. The women would always be beautiful and wear very tight black sweaters. The men would always have a thin mustache and wear a beret. The reality of course concerning resistance fighters was that it was a horrific, fear-filled life that so often ended in death.

Making his directorial debut, Polish director Andrzej Wajda told his story of the Polish resistance in 1955's A Generation. It was part of an unofficial trilogy about Poland in World War II that has now been released through the Criterion Collection. All of the films are held in high regard as much for their brutal honesty as their impressive film-making. Telling the story of resistance fighters is almost always interesting, but seeing foreign films and their perspective is more interesting. You're going to get a different perspective, and as is the case here with Wajda's debut, an understated honesty that is so often missing in war movies.

It is early in World War II, and the German army is occupying Poland. Life moves on for most under their German occupiers, including young Stach (Tadeusz Lomnicki), who finds a job in a small factory making furniture and doors with his friend, Sekula (Janusz Paluszkiewicz). Stach begins to see other workers and supervisors working and moving around secretly, and finally he meets a young resistance leader, Dorota (Ursula Modrzynska). Stach is intrigued -- partially by the conflict and partially because of a crush he has on Dorota -- and joins up. He recruits his own small squad of fighters, helping to slow down the German war effort in any way they can. But as time passes, Stach begins to climb through the ranks. His reputation might grow too much though as the Germans (especially the Gestapo and the SS) are closing in.

Is it possible to get spoiled by the polished films that are released from American studios? And no, I don't intend that as some elitist dig at other countries' films.  I can't say I've seen many Polish films, much less those released over 50 years ago in 1955.  Wajda films in black and white, and the years haven't aged his movie well, producing a grainy, even washed out look at times.  The movie was shot on location in Warsaw, but not in any glamorous, pretty locations. Wajda shoots in the slums, the run-down housing, the dark back alleys and claustrophobic factories and buildings. The Polish people are struggling to get along under their German occupiers, and visually, it is easy to see their plight.

Call it a romantic portrayal or mental picture, but resistance fighters -- regardless of nationality so this isn't exclusive to Poles -- often did tasks that had no major impact on the war effort. They shot individual officers, they threw coal from trains bound for German troops, and they transported guns in small quantities, not grosses of guns. That is the brutal honesty of Wajda's resistance film. Stach's group, and Dorota's on a bigger level, will not change the course of the war through their actions. Instead, they make smaller efforts. On their own, maybe those events meant little. But combined over the course of weeks, months and years, it would add up. All the while, their efforts put them on watch lists of the Gestapo and the SS. So often, it ended with individuals being dragged away never to be seen again, almost certainly dying after hours and days of painful torture.

That is a major reason I enjoyed this movie. Stach almost gets in trouble because he stole a pistol. That's singular. Just one pistol. His squad accomplishes little, or at least little to what we see.  Dorota continues to try and recruit new members to the cause, the young people coming out more and more. The one slightly Hollywood touch comes in one of their few attempts at resistance. One of Stach's men, Jasio (Tadeusz Janczar), has already shot a German officer and struggles with his actions, the guilt tearing him apart. He's separated from the other fighters and leads his pursuers on a chase through the ruined city. It  is a chase that cannot end well because eventually the pursuers will corner him. Uncomfortable and exciting all rolled up into one scene, it is a remarkable sequence with an incredibly moving ending. You can watch it HERE with obvious SPOILERS. 

Almost always a positive watching lower budget foreign films is little background or experience with the actors and actresses. The acting here is incredibly natural, nothing forced or over the top. Lomnicki's Stach is the heart of the movie, a quiet but determined fighter who joins the cause. Janczar also delivers a great performance as Jasio, the emotionally torn fighter, and Modrzynska as Dorota ends up representing so much more to the cause, more than just a leader. Even look for a young Roman Polanski as one of Stach's squad. All the performances are like that, understated and effective. No stagey, nothing flashy, and nothing theatrical. Just a bare bones, moving story of individuals fighting a doomed battle.

A Generation <---TCM clips (1955): ***/****