Uprising

Thanks to Andrzej Wajda's World War II trilogy -- especially 1957's Kanal -- I feel like I've got a better grasp of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Warsaw uprising of 1944. Watch enough WWII movies and read enough books about the war and you're going to hear about the Warsaw Ghetto because of the immensity of the place and the thousands of people who lived there.  But it is a part of history and WWII that so often gets lost in the background, overshadowed by major campaigns and important players in the war. Part of that you can chalk up to a story that in its historical accuracy is not going to appeal to the masses.

The Polish take on the Ghetto is one thing, but in a bigger picture Holocaust movies are going to find success in niches among audience members. An NBC TV miniseries originally shown in 2011, Uprising is one of the few ventures into the true story of the Warsaw Ghetto and the subsequent uprising in 1944 as the Polish Jews rebelled against their German occupiers. Like so many war stories, there will be no happy ending, and that's part of the appeal to me. It's honest, it's depressing, and it tells a story that couldn't be faked.  There are historical inaccuracies, generalizations made for the sake of time and simplicity, but the heart of the story works, and that's the most important thing.

It's 1939 and Adolf Hitler's Germany army sweeps across Poland, forcing a surrender within a month. In Warsaw, over 350,000 Polish Jews are forced to move into a ghetto where they are kept apart from the city at large in a walled-off portion of the city under German guard. Among the thousands of Jews is Mordechai Anielewicz (Hank Azaria), a musician and teacher, and Antek (David Schwimmer), an intellectual and long-time friend of Mordechai. The months turn into years and both men -- among thousands of other people -- grow tired of their German occupiers while the head of the Jewish council, Adam Czerniakow (Donald Sutherland), struggles to fight for the rights of the Jews. A Jewish resistance mounts in the city to fight off the German soldiers, but the German high command sends an officer, General Jurgen Stoop (Jon Voight), into Warsaw to wipe out the rebellion to a man.

Generally historically accurate with a few detours here and there toward poetic license, Uprising at its best gets the heart and message right. The Polish Jews were not alone in their efforts as is shown, receiving help from outside forces into the Polish underground.  The point of the story though was to show the bravery, the courage, and the persistence shown by the Polish Jews in the face of almost certain defeat.  Heavily outnumbered, under-supplied and fighting a losing battle, the resistance fought on for over 40 days before finally being overrun and ultimately defeated.  Courage is one thing, but maintaining that courage when staring death in the face takes it to a whole other level.  They fought on when they could have abandoned the cause. Thousands paid for that decision with their lives, digging their heels in and fighting back.

The TV miniseries isn't as popular as it was in the late 1970s and 1980s, but it is still that great middle ground between an hour-long TV show and a feature film.  A positive you can always take away is the ability to assemble strong casts for more speaking roles than you might see in a typical movie. Uprising may not have the star quality, but the cast turns in solid, all-around performances. Azaria and Schwimmer are the leads, stepping up to the plate as the resistance leaders.  Among the other resistance fighters are Leelee Sobieski as a young woman, the last surviving member of her family, Stephen Moyer as Kazik, the jokester, fighter and ladies man to go with Sadie Frost, Radha Mitchell, Eric Lively, Alexandra Holden, John Ales, and Andy Nyman as a Jewish police officer working with the resistance. Sutherland and Voight have parts that are cameos more than major parts with Cary Elwes playing a German filmmaker making a documentary about the Ghetto.

With the exception of the premium cable channels, TV can be censored within an inch of its life. My worry going in to this miniseries was exactly that, a story of a part of the Holocaust that would be as vanilla and boring as humanly possible.  No worries here because this miniseries did not pull any punches.  The story is dark, filthy and cynical. The firefights back and forth are bloody and surprisingly graphic for a show aired on national TV. Not just blood for the sake of blood either, the battles are moving. You see the characters develop and change over the course of years. At times, the portrayals are a little much, making the Poles the saintly individuals with no flaws and the Germans as the sadistic, irredeemable pigs. It's a little stereotypical, but the portrayal of the Germans wasn't too far-fetched. It doesn't feel like a miniseries though, and that's always a good thing.

Clocking in at just under three hours, director Jon Avnet manages to cram five years worth of story into 177 minutes. For the most part, he does a good job balancing it out, spending a half hour or so establishing everything and then quickly jumping right into the resistance effort and eventually the Warsaw Uprising.  The pacing is good, always moving along and always entertaining. There are only a few instances where things feel rushed, but one of them ends up being a major flaw. The explanation is going to have some major SPOILERS though so be forewarned.

The uprising eventually turns toward the Germans as the resistance is eventually overwhelmed. Azaria's Mordechai and the remaining members of his company are cornered in an underground bunker while others narrowly escape into the ruined streets above. Sobieski's Tosia leads an escape while the others await the German attack. The only problem? We don't see it...at all.  There's not even a flashback of the attack, a quick montage, a couple shots of their dead bodies much less the actual attack. Azaria is the main character yet he's dispatched off-screen with no explanation. Was the movie running too long? Was something cut? He deserved better, and it seems like a missed effort. As a tribute to the character and the resistance, I feel like as a viewer we needed to see these valiant freedom fighters in their last ditch effort.

It's nothing by any means that derails the movie, just a complaint. The ending is a downer, but with a touch of an uplifting note.  As heavy as the casualties were on both sides in the uprising, there were Polish Jew survivors, just not many. Not always spot-on in terms of accuracy, Uprising still manages to get the message across, the spirit of the Polish resistance.  An underrated, well-handled miniseries dealing with one of history's generally forgotten tragic chapters.

Uprising <---Youtube clips (2001): ***/****