Wehrmacht ora zero

In 1967, Polish movie crew made an excellent film, Westerplatte, dedicated to first several days of September 1939's German attack on Polish peninsula, where a small but brave and crafty force of soldiers made their best to defend a small plot of land. The black and white film is a bit detached and withdrawn on purpose and it helps to build a certain menacing suspense. Heroism is shown here as a very usual, almost casual event, not a beautiful pose, but a gray, morbid bravery in face of imminent death. There are many simply soldiers and officers who do their duty and they defend the territory at their best, despite a sure feeling that many will fall. A sad, bitter and acid tale is very deep and real, slow camera work helps to show many faces of gruesome death. What makes this film not totally perfect is a certain lack of deeper character build-up, as well as some slightly hammy dialog that lose some of the sharpness. This is a very cool film that must be watched and be remembered as a good example of decent war cinema

This Polish-made war film depicts the events leading up to and during the Battle of Westerplatte, Poland, in September 1939. Regarded as the first battle of WW2, a Polish army stationed at a Transit Depot at Westerplatte in the Danzig peninsula are attacked by German army, air and naval forces at the onset of the Invasion of Poland. The Polish soldiers here were expected to hold off for about twelve hours. In the end, they fought on for seven days, succeeding in holding off the Germans during that time due to stubborn resistance and highly effective field fortifications, such as trenches, in the woods on the peninsula. This is a well-made war film, for the most part. A few things that struck me, though, were the hollow script - if you didn't know anything about this battle or the background to it, you'd be fairly lost - also, it was surprisingly lacklustre, considering the subject matter. But the acting was solid, and it was relentless in it's portrayal of the action. I liked it more than the controversial 2013 depiction of the battle.

If you are familiar with the usual kind of movies that Netflix adds to its collection, you may understand my great surprise when a few days ago they added this Polish movie (and several other Polish movies) to their offerings. You don't often see movies made before 1980 on Netflix, especially those that are also foreign movies! When Netflix recommended this movie to me, I decided to give it a look, and I'm glad that I did. While not a masterpiece, this is a solid World War II effort giving its audience a good look at a crucial part of the war. You really get an idea of how things started and progressed, and the struggles the Polish forces were facing. The battle sequences, while not overly graphic, do have a lot of firepower and showcase the brutality of war. In case you are wondering, while the movie was made behind the Iron Curtain during the depths of the Cold War, there is no communist propaganda on display here - it feels instead a showcase of how things really were at the time. I admit that there isn't a huge amount of character development on display, and it might have been interesting had the movie taken the time to show what was going on in the German forces' minds during this battle. But for the most part, the movie works very well, and I highly recommend it. I hope that this movie (and the other Polish movies) on Netflix do well enough with consumers so that Netflix will be encouraged to pick up more older movies of all different genres from Poland and many other countries.

For me it's the best Polish war movie. This true story about almost 200 hundred Polish soldiers became a legend in Poland. Westerplatte it's a peninsula near Gdansk and there first shots of II world war was fired. Proportion of Polish and German forces was 1:20 (one Polish soldier to 20 German). German used Cuirassier "Schleswig Holstein", other Ships, Dive Bombers to beat Polish soldiers who was supposed to defence by 12 hours. They defend 7 days. In this movie you'll see all this heroes and how was it in real. German thought that it will be easy job, but they don't knew that on the Westerplatte was hide 5 sentrys, outposts and Polish soldiers was the best in they speciality. Great cinematography, great acting. It's the great movie.

A technically superb dramatization of the battle of Westerplatte, where the very first shots of World War 2 were fired.

The action sequences and the sets are as realistic as you are likely to witness, a remarkable achievement for the time period in which this film was made.

Also remarkable, are the laconic soldiers, who were expeted to last 12 hours and to offer up a token resisitance to the anticipated Nazi invasion. They lasted a week before they surrendered, and were the first and last of the Polish forces to resist.

The film limits creative input, and does indeed present the battle as one fought with tenacity and honour. A classic.