Kanal
by Andrzej Wajda
Our Price: $49.95
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $19.99 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Stanislaw Mikulski, Tadeusz Gwiazdowski, Tadeusz Janczar, Teresa Izewska, Wienczyslaw GlinskiDirector: Andrzej Wajda
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: German (Original Language); Polish (Original Language); English (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 96 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-11-18
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Polart
Movie Reviews of Kanal
Movie Review: Captures the Subterranean Component of the Foredoomed and Betrayed Warsaw Uprising
Summary: 5 Stars
I first saw Wajda's classic film while visiting Poland decades ago. Intended for an informed Polish audience, it doesn't provide much historical context. For this reason, I include an introduction for the benefit of the non-Polish viewer.
As the Red Army was about the drive the Germans out of Poland, the Polish Underground (AK) came out in open warfare against the Germans (Operation Burza, or Tempest). The AK seized several cities from the Germans in eastern Poland prior to the arrival of Soviet troops.
But Poland had already been betrayed by Churchill and Roosevelt in the events leading up to and including Teheran. The Soviets had no interest in respecting Polish sovereignty and feared no consequences for violating the same. No sooner had the eastern Polish cities been freed than the AK was disarmed and its leaders either shot by the NKVD or shipped to Siberian concentration camps.
Then came Warsaw's turn--only much worse. The Red Army was on the eastern outskirts of Warsaw. The Uprising was launched, intended for a three-day fight. It turned into a 63-day agony. The Red Army stood fast...and stood...and stood. It wouldn't move again for six months. The Soviets wanted the Germans to complete the dirty work of destroying the flower of Polish resistance.
The use of sewers for transport of goods and people had been pioneered and developed some 16 months earlier during the Polish Underground's assistance to the Jewish Ghetto Uprising. During the Polish uprising, as sections of Warsaw fell to the vastly more powerful German forces, the only way out was through the sewers. Wajda's dramatic film captures the drama of the evacuation of Polish fighters and civilians through the sewers of Warsaw. The evacuees not only had to contend with sewage and sewer gasses, but also German booby traps. One scene shows the disarming of a trap consisting of a wired network of German "potato masher" grenades.
The taking of POWs by Germans needs clarification. At first, during the Uprising, captured soldiers and civilians were summarily killed. Tens of thousands of unarmed Polish civilians were systematically murdered by the Germans at Wola alone. But then the Germans promised to spare civilians and to afford POW status to the captured combatants. This was no sudden discovery of humanitarianism towards the Slavic untermenschen. The Germans realized that the Poles would never surrender as long as their deaths were inevitable in any case. Also the Germans, realizing that they would likely lose the war, wanted to set a precedent of captured guerillas being afforded POW status in the event of future German guerilla warfare. Finally, there was the specter of postwar war-crimes trials, and the belated need for good German behavior.
Nevertheless, the foregoing considerations didn't stop the Germans from burning and blowing up Warsaw's historic buildings after the Uprising. The Red Army waited outside Warsaw for another three months after the surrender of the Uprising to give the Germans ample time to do this. Scarcely any habitable buildings in Warsaw remained.
Summary of Kanal
KANAL begins on the 56th day of the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis. A ragtag group of untrained Resistance fighters hold the frontline. They try to live a relatively normal life, and even play the piano. They achieve many small victories, but must retreat into the sewers. But the darkness stretches on forever...A work of shocking extremes, KANAL depicts the dignity of ordinary people in the face of unspeakable horror. In dark, underground pits, gorgeous women struggle in rivers of sludge. The darkness itself weighs down heavily - but is punctuated by flickering candles and torches that create unforgettable compositions, and by brutal bursts of light from the world above.
KANAL was the second feature film directed by Academy Award- and Cannes Film Festival-winner Andrzej Wajda. It is the second part of Wajda's acclaimed "war trilogy," which also includes A GENERATION and ASHES AND DIAMONDS.
Art House & International DVD Video
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Movies most talked about in Odyssees, Quests and Travel Narratives
Borat - Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Widescreen Edition)TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2007-03-06; DVD
Best price: $4.92
Price in other shops:
UndertowTWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2005-04-26; DVD
Best price: $2.49
Price in other shops:
Mel Gibson's Apocalypto (Widescreen Edition)APOCALYPTO; Release date: 2007-05-22; DVD
Best price: $9.29
Price in other shops:
Little Miss SunshineTWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2006-12-19; DVD
Best price: $5.45
Price in other shops:
Russian Ark: The Masterworks EditionRelease date: 2003-09-09; DVD
Best price: $12.51
Price in other shops:
The Three Burials of Melquiades EstradaSony; Release date: 2006-06-06; DVD
Best price: $4.89
Price in other shops:
O Brother, Where Art Thou?CLOONEY,GEORGE; Release date: 2001-06-12; DVD
Best price: $7.11
Price in other shops:
Apocalypse NowRelease date: 1979-08-15; DVD
Best price: $28.95
Price in other shops:
KanalRelease date: 2003-11-18; DVD
Price in other shops:
The SearchersRelease date: 1997-10-29; DVD
Best price: $5.98
Price in other shops:
Similar DVD Movies
We Were Soldiers (Widescreen Edition)GIBSON,MEL; Release date: 2002-08-20; DVD
Best price: $6.05
Price in other shops:
The Winter War (Talvisota)Release date: 1990-12-31; DVD
Best price: $29.98
Price in other shops:
Europa EuropaRelease date: 2003-03-04; DVD
Best price: $7.60
Price in other shops:
StalingradGenius; Release date: 1998-11-03; DVD
Best price: $13.14
Price in other shops:
Days of Glory (Indigenes)WELLSPRING/GENIUS; Release date: 2007-06-12; DVD
Best price: $2.01
Price in other shops:
Out of the AshesParamount; Release date: 2004-04-20; DVD
Best price: $8.76
Price in other shops:
Night and Fog - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2003-06-24; DVD
Best price: $8.94
Price in other shops:
DownfallSony; Release date: 2005-08-02; DVD
Best price: $5.38
Price in other shops:
Come and SeeRelease date: 2003-09-02; DVD
Best price: $18.26
Price in other shops:
Essential Art House: Ashes and DiamondsRelease date: 2009-06-16; DVD
Best price: $14.98
Price in other shops: