Andrzej Wajda’s ‘Kanal’ (Canal): A company of Polish army; men and women trapped in the endless sewer of war. People who have so much to live for realizing they cannot go on. Kanal is about love, courage and cowardice. And above all war. This is a black and white movie made in 1956.
In Kanal even light is a booby train amid death and destruction, though of course we see light in the courageous Daisy.
Inside the sewer struggling to make their way to the other side, Jacek who is tired and sick suggests to her: "We'll never keep up shall we call to Michael"
"It doesn't matter I know the severs," comes the reply.
"We'll get there if we go slowly and steadily," she reassures him.
Jacek: "You're very strong as though you'd heaved sacks".
Daisy: "That I've never done."
Kanal may not have the technical brilliance of movies made today but it has poignant and moving moments which makes it memorable.
Andrzej Wajda’s ‘Kanal’ was the first film made out of the Warsaw uprising, an operation by the Polish army to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. It was the second of the War trilogy preceded by A Generation and followed by Ashes and Diamonds.
Movies like Kanal (although the Iranian masters and directors like Krzysztof Kieslowski are my favorites) would open our eyes to the fact that most present-day movies touted as "award winning" and "classic" by the mainstream media and the critics here are, in fact, merely mediocre shows. That technical brilliance, good screenplay, arresting cinematography or stirring music alone is not enough to make a movie great.
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