Out of three films made by Mr. Hoffman (Potop, Ogniem i Mieczem, Pan Wolodyjowski) upon the trilogy of Henryk Sienkiewicz, this film is probably the weakest. Strange to notice that this book is the last in the trilogy but was filmed first, so Hoffman preserved this backward method to the end. I only wish he could make new versions of this and Potop films as well! Anyway, Pan Wolodyjowski is a fine portrayal of the 17th century Poland, its wars against Tatars and other nomadic armies. What makes this film so brilliant is the superb battle scene shooting, graphical yet not so unbearable violence and clear patriotic (some may call it nationalistic) sentiment towards Poland. As I wrote, this is not the best film in the series, but try to watch them all three and see how well Hoffman did his job.