csenior-05946 Reviews

Man of Marble (1977)

Charlie Brown + Gomer Pyle + Latka = Polish Commie Hero!

[9/10 · 21 February 2021]

Let's start with the "Stakhanovite movement", a concept foreign to most Americans/Westerners (myself even after seeing the film 3x). Next, realize that there was an actual bricklayer in Nowa Huta who was celebrated for his bricklaying expertise in the communist cult that celebrated the creation of Nowa Huta. How accurately Wajda's character resembles the real-life one is seemingly-irrelevant to Wajda's plot. As a film about a young, naive, first-filmmaker under strict Communist censorship: One has to wonder how much the plot is covertly autobiographical (regarding Wajda's own career?) As a first-generation, American, Roman Catholic of Polish ancestry, I recognize Wajda's personal alienation from my own, detached Polish culture. Only the single sign-of-the-Cross made by Mateusz, and the strict denial of marriage banns to his underage bride (by Church clergy sanction) lend any hint towards the nature of Mateusz's Catholic-character-qualities. His honesty, his sincerity, his simplicity, his fidelity to friends and neighbors, his patriotism while living under the yoke of tyrannical, atheistic rule--all attest to the values of Catholicism part of traditional Polish culture! Absent my own experience, I would never glean these facts from Wajda's script or characterizations. Of key-central historical note: As a socialist, planned utopian city amongst a strongly-Roman-Catholic culture: Nowa Huta lacked any Catholic Churches! The element of support for the post-war-reconstruction of Poland by Catholic heirarchy is totally absent in Wajda's script, but not in the actual history he attempts to portray in this film! While Wajda prominently depicts workers' party politics throughout the Film, one has only to study the subsequent growth of the Solidarity movement to realize the sterile view of Polish Catholic culture Wajda depicts for his audience! Again: One has to question if this glaring/blatant omission was an arranged 'condition' of Wajda's 'artistic license' granted to him conditionally in scripting this 'historical-depiction-of-sorts'? (Surely: No filmmaker under Communist rule would be granted carte blanche freedom to depict characters, plots, family values, cultural practices relating to a State-suppressed, major religious practices!) While Mateusz is depicted with idealistic Stakhanovite qualities, the 'real bricklayer' behind his character would seem to have been motivated by Polish Roman Catholic social values pertaining towards the common good--qualities Communism desires to 'adapt'/'borrow'/'steal'/'emulate' for bolstering its own lackluster rewards towards individual initiative! ('Forget!' any mention of 'eternal rewards' or acts of charity stemming from Christian zeal!)

City of Joel (2018)

Fundamentally Spiritual Warfare Depicted As Parochialism

[5/10 · 19 February 2021]

The film depicts competing Jewish and "Christian" cultures--living side-by-side--seeking coexistence as American citizens. What is undeniably evident over time, is that neither culture wishes to 'integrate' with the other, despite sharing access to local geophysical, government, social, financial, spiritual, and economic resources. The Director's manipulation of cultural tensions absent spiritual insights leaves this viewer doubting the value of chicken soup for a winter cold.