"Kanal" at CSUN

Tonight at CSUN we saw "Kanal" (1957) by Andrzej Wajda. It is the story of a platoon of Polish Resistance fighters who are battling the occupying Nazis during the final days of the Warsaw Uprising in September 1944. The Poles, with their small citizen army, were brave to take on the mighty and terrible Nazis, but at the same time they were foolhardy to do so for obvious reasons. They were a ragtag band, with a few guns and outdated grenade launchers, going up against the Wehrmacht and their Tiger tanks. Ultimately, the platoon - who have been holed up in a formerly elegant house in the nearly obliterated city of Warsaw - are notified by their superiors that they must move. Nazi tanks are about to make a final conquest of the area, and the Resistance platoon will be destroyed if they stay.

Their orders send them down into the sewer system below the city streets. The sewer (i.e. the "Kanal" of the title) is their only hope for escape. It is so repulsive down there, so dark and hellish, that they are sure the Nazis won't follow them down below.

I had seen "Kanal" once before. I mentioned last week that back in 2011 or so, I found the first three Wajda films, "Kanal" among them, at the Reseda libe. So I had seen it several years ago, and I remembered it as an unrelenting war film. I watch trillions of films, as you know, and I don't always remember, as years pass by, every exact detail of each one that I see. But I did remember the sewer scenario in "Kanal". It takes up the second half of the 90 minute movie.

I was wondering tonight, as I walked out of the Armer Theater at CSUN, just how director Wajda created the hellish underground trap, and it's grotesque conditions, in which the desperate fighters find themselves. It appeared for certain that he filmed in an actual sewer system. In addition to above ground footage of the destroyed city of Warsaw, which was little more than rubble and very real in the movie, so too had to be the sewer system the main part of "Kanal" was filmed in, a labyrinth of tubular brickwork breaking up into separate channels that veer off in confusing directions. In the movie, the platoon members, after being down there for a while, have no idea where they are, under the city.

But the real question, for me, was "how did Wajda recreate the "conditions" of the sewer? For this is the main metaphor of "Kanal" : that, to escape the final destruction by the Nazi tanks at ground level, the Polish fighters had to literally "descend into hell", the hell of the sewage system, which winds up making them sick, and left finally with no choice but to ascend to street level once again, to Nazi soldiers who await them, no matter which manhole they emerge from. The Germans have every escape avenue covered. It is a horrible fate for the Poles after so much superhuman struggle in the sewer.

All was for naught.

Well, so there you have it. Seeing "Kanal" on the big screen brought home for me the depths of degradation of the war. I harp on the Nazis very often, and with good reason, for here you are shown in real life - with the Warsaw city footage, what war does, and in this case it was done by the Nazi war machine.

The unfortunate people of Poland, because of their geographic location, were caught between two Devil Powers, one from Germany and one from the Soviet Union. Each of those historical monsters, Hitler and Stalin, wanted Polish land for their own. And they tore that country apart, and as I always point out, this happened a mere 80 years ago, give or take.

A mere 80 years. That is nothing, folks. That's just a couple of grandmas, in generational time.

"Kanal" was made by a man who lived through the events depicted in his movie, the Resistance if not the sewer escape.

But the point is that this is the Real Deal. "Kanal" is as hard core as a movie can get, in showing you how "real", meaning horrible, life can get.

I am your Intrepid Reporter, and your Detective, and I know that terrible subject matters from history are not things which you may want to read about or think about of your own accord, and I understand that completely.

So that's why I deal with these issues for you and present them to you "second hand". Just so you will know about what has gone on in the world, especially in Europe and Asia, and now we are seeing an attempted takeover of America by a bunch of hoodlums from New York and Russia.

Hoodlums. It's always the same mentality and it never seems to let up, from Stalin and Hitler to Trump.

I would recommend "Kanal" with Two Gigantic Thumbs Up, but at the same time I would only suggest you watch it if you have the heart and stomach for such a film. It was made in 1957, so while it is graphic, it is thus on a lesser scale than a remake would be today. The bigger point is that "Kanal" is artistic from start to finish, with astonishing camera work and lighting. It is the cinema of a people, and a director, who were there, who experienced the nightmare and could then tell the story on film from a first person perspective.

Absolute highest rating for "Kanal".

That was all the news for the day, except for that I got my hair cut this morn. Looks good.

See you in the morn.  :):)