Battle Of Warsaw 1920 (2011)

I just watched this movie (called "Bitwa Warszawska 1920" in Polish) and have to say that I was not impressed at all. I have heard of the "miracle" that helped the Poles win against the Soviets in the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1921 and was interested in seeing a film that showed just how that "miracle" was done. This was not the one to do that.

This was more of a slap-stick comedy (and a really poor one at that) than a historical war movie. Everything from the storyline to the acting seemed like it was done to make everyone involved (both the Poles and the Soviets, the military and the civilians) look like a farce. I read that this is the most expensive Polish movie (at least up to 2011) and that just shows you that throwing money at something doesn't make it good. You have to have substance too.

During the real Battle for Warsaw in August 1920 Józef Piłsudski (who later became the first Marshall of Poland as well as it's de facto leader from 1926-1935) led between 113,000–123,000 soldiers against the Soviet's 104,000–140,000 with estimated Soviet losses of 10,000 killed, 500 missing, 30,000 wounded, and 66,000 taken prisoner, compared to Polish losses of 4,500 killed, 10,000 missing, and 22,000 wounded. Vladimir Lenin called the Battle of Warsaw "an enormous defeat" for his forces. It lead to a peace treaty between Poland and the Soviet Union that lasted until September 1939 when the Soviets invaded and occupied eastern Poland shortly after the Nazis (which the Soviets had a Pact with) invaded and occupied western Poland.

The film did little to impress the importance of the Battle in terms of both the Polish-Soviet War, World War 2 (it's one of the reasons Stalin ordered the Red Army to sit and watch as the Polish Resistance fought the Nazis during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 - so all the anti-Communist Poles could be killed by the Germans) or in Soviet-backed Communist Poland from 1945-1989.