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To me, this movie is perfection.

The Worst Film Ever

Sorry, this movie sucks

Don't listen to the negative reviews

I loved this film classic, and after seeing it, I can understand why both Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola were so influenced by it. It is remarkably shot. The following scenes will stay within my cinematic consciousness for a long while: (a) the church scene with the upside-down Christ; (b) the Communist official's assassination scene with the fireworks; (c) the long, reflective bar table with the lit shot glasses; (d) the hotel staircase scene immediately preceding the assassination with the myriad of graphic patterns across the screen on the walls, the floor, etc.; (e) the drunk man's "crowd attack" with the fire extinguisher at the banquet table; (f) the ending dance/dirge at daybreak. The cinematography really reminded me of the work of Gregg Toland in CITIZEN KANE. In fact, as in KANE, almost all of ASHES & DIAMONDS' interior scenes were shot with the camera very low, or even under the floorboards, where the ceilings were always visible. The cinematography was fantastic!I liked the narrative structure also; however, I can understand one's confusion given the complex WWII political structure of Poland, the Communist, the Germans, etc. But, subtracting the political undertones of the narrative, I found that the film raised compelling issues of courage, conscience, heritage, and pride. Loved the fact that the main character -- deemed "the James Dean of Poland" -- after falling in love with the barmaid now wants to chance his mind and abandon the Polish Resistance. Only he can't because of his pride, his conscience, his colleague's challenge, or his fate.Loved the film's use of symbols and images: (a) the cross and Christ figures; (b) heat, and flames, and fire, all components of ashes and diamonds; (c) flowers and violets, from the small girl at the start offering the violets to the icon/altar above the church door at the start to the violets of the Barmaid and even violets eventually thrown in the trash; (d) the main character's dark glasses which symbolize his obscured vision, or that of the Polish Resistance or the Communists?Love the musical score. It was grand and operatic, and can be easily seen in Martin Scorsese's and Francis Ford Coppola's works.Loved the acting. The chemistry between the two leads was extremely believable. The rest of the cast was excellent as well.Score Grid --Script/Story: 4Cinematography/Visual Effect: 4+Editing: 3.5Sound/Musical Score: 4Production Design: 4+Acting/Performance: 4How good was the film objectively? Strong & Weak Points –See my comments above. Weakest point of the film was the editing. Could be cut sharper, cleaner.Worst, of course, was the quality of the print at the Festival. Shameful for such a b/w classic at a major festival venue.Recommend the film? Absolutely. Required for any lover of film and film history for the reasons noted above.

Andrzejewski's book was a tool of the communist propaganda, harmful and deceiving. Wajda's film was more temperate. Made in difficult times of hard state censorship it managed somehow to smuggle a picture of how complicated was the reality in Poland just after Second World War. Comparing to the book, the plot is a bit reduced, one important thread is discarded (of an advocate who returned from German camp, and he was outed by his time companion, Szczuka - communist activist targeted for assassination - as a former kapo). The summary of the film on this site is misleading. It is not a film about fight of former partisan fellow-men. It is a film about a choice, whether to remain in conspiracy and fight new regime or to go out from underground and start normal living, as only it is possible.For sure the film is more valuable than a book. Might be watched, although might be also hard to understand by a non-Poles.

Almost every major scene was overdone, especially the death scenes - as a farce this was a reasonably good film, as a tragedy it's tragic. At times, I was laughing and wondering if Fellini had seen this parody of his approach to telling stories via cinema. I didn't read the book; I watched this film eagerly with no previously held opinion one way or the other I have a large collection of Criterion type films, and probably that's the reason I had never got around to watching Ashes & Diamonds. FWIW, I watched it alone because I wanted to "be in the tunnel" so to speak.From the beginning, there were no real surprises and it was apparent the director was going to be in a "do you get it?" mood. Much of the acting was either wooden or in a state of suppressed hysteria.As a chronicle of Poland's shock at not being victorious after years of hell, this film deserves high marks for it's depiction of Poles making the best of a hollow celebration. As a potential awakening for both the assassin and his intended victim, the film is entitled once again, to high marks. As a love story, much of it is well done.Then, what's the problem? Too many cross currents, many of which were just exercises in thrashing and flailing, and, for me, I was looking for something to chew on and digest as opposed to being shown overly long drawn out scenes of either silliness or despair; that's when it occurred to me I was not a member of the director's choir; after a round of expletives I calmed down and thought of Fellini's and Bergman's approaches to developing a story and wished they'd made this film.

The third in Director Andrej Wadja's war trilogy, Ashes and Diamonds is set in Poland on the last day of WW2. The German High Command have issued their unconditional surrender and the Communists quickly fill the vacuum left by Hitler's goose-steppers and set up shop. Warsaw is lousy with rats and not all of them are of the rodent variety as power hungry bureaucrats jostle for position in the new order.Having spent the last half a decade under the Nazi junta; the prospect of a future under Stalin's jackboot is met with keen opposition. Maciek, a resistance fighter, is ordered to kill a local Socialist party official, which he is more than happy to do, but soon discovers he has killed two innocent civilians instead.Maciek books a room at a rundown hotel where his quarry is staying. While he waits for the right moment to make amends he meets and falls in love with the barmaid Krystyna. His connection to the girl leads him to rethink his part in the endless cycle of violence.The central role of Maciek was played by the brilliant Zybigniew Cybulski who came to be known as the 'Polish James Dean.' Dean's death in a highway smash in 1955 meant he would never fulfil his promise and so would forever be frozen in movie goer's minds as a deeply troubled boy. Cybulski was 30 when he played the role that made him and gives us a glimpse of what his western counterpart could have achieved. Cybulski's Maciek is a worldly wise, vodka fuelled skirt chaser, (not a million miles away from his real life persona allegedly) and far from being made twisted and bitter by his war experiences, Cybulski plays the character as a man who laughs at the cruel joke of life that his been played on all of us and is determined to "have fun and not be swindled" even in the face of imminent annihilation.It was a conscious decision on Wadja and Cybulski's part that despite their story taking place in 1945, ASHES AND DIAMONDS' central character was going to be 'all out' 50's cool. Parts Brando, Dean and Clift – Maciek, in his army fatigues and 'sun-glasses after dark' became a symbol for Polish teenagers who would emulate his style for years to come; and his Anna Karenna-esquire death beneath the wheels of a late night train in 1967 only exacerbated his legendary status. Even now we see shades of him in any number of Hong Kong 'glock operas' and John Cusack's 'assassin in Raybans' from Grosse Point Blank is a clearly a direct ancestor.Often charged with being overloaded with symbolism as scenes are obscured by upside down crucifixes; characters rendered almost invisible in morning light whilst unfurling flags or inexplicably joined by white horses as they ponder the possibilities of a brighter future, ASHES AND DIAMONDS makes no secret of its Expressionist credentials. The youthful hero dying on a mountainous rubbish dump to the accompaniment of screeching crows is an image lifted almost directly from Van Gogh's apocalyptic 'Crows over Wheatfield's'.Two years after Cybulski met his destiny on the snowy platform of Wroclaw station Wadja made EVERYTHING FOR SALE about an actor missing from the set of a film. The missing actor was clearly meant to be Cybulski who even in death dominated every scene. It still stands as probably the best film an actor never made.