Samson
by Andrzej Wajda
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alina Janowska, Elzbieta Kepinska, Jan Ciecierski, Serge Merlin, Tadeusz BartosikDirector: Andrzej Wajda
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Polish (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 115 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-12-28
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Polart
Movie Reviews of Samson
Movie Review: A Fascinating and Well-Crafted Film
Summary: 5 Stars
First off, here's a warning: understand Polish. Though Samson is supposed to have English subtitles, those that it does have are sparse and often truncated. Its like hearing only a small portion of what is said. That caveat aside, the non-Polish speaker can still enjoy this film and understand what's going on by paying close attention to it.
This is the story of Jakub Gold, a young Jewish man in pre-war Poland who finds himself dealing daily with anti-Semitism. As he is taunted and fairly seriously threatened at a patriotic rally by anti-Semitic fellow students, he accidentally kills one of his tormenters when he deflects a large rock being thrown around that comes dangerously close to him. For this he is jailed and even in jail, no one lets him forget that he is a Jew. Then when WW II breaks out, the prisoners escape, but freedom is brief as Jews are forced to move behind the ghetto barriers being built by the occupying Nazis.
Here Jakub finds himself among his fellows and is employed to help remove the bodies of those found dead in the streets. When he finds his mother, he resolves to escape and with the another's help, he manages to scale the ghetto wall and vanishes into Warsaw's general population. But here, he finds himself in a new kind of prison as he must always lurk in the shadows trying to escape detection. Many people help him, including a couple of women who become attached to him, but there are always those who are afraid to help for fear of the Gestapo, and those whose antipathy to the Jews make his position precarious. Jakub often seems ungrateful and hostile towards his benefactors but one can almost understand this when his predicament and likely mental state is taken into account.
The ending of the film is stunning, but the revenge Jakub wreaks on those who have killed so many of his people seems a little overblown. It is very tragic when it didn't have to be so. You'll see what I am talking about when you watch it.
Some things surprised me about the film. Though this was made under a communist government, life in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation was not portrayed as particularly harsh. The average Pole on the street was well-dressed and privation was not evident except in the ghetto. Though anxious to avoid notice by the occupying forces, people seemed to go about their business living as normally as it is possible to live in a wartime economy. Only at the end as the Germans were on the verge of leaving can you see the real destruction wrought by the war.
Despite my very limited command of Polish and the paucity of the English sub-titles, I found Samson a fascinating and well-crafted film that I am proud to add to my collection.
Summary of Samson
While attending the university in Warsaw, Jakub Gold, a young Jewish man, accidentally kills a fellow student in a brawl. After serving some time in prison, he is released at the outset of WWII. Soon, he is imprisoned again, this time behind the wall of the Warsaw Ghetto, along with hundreds of other Jews. Jakub escapes the ghetto only to find himself trapped in a different way. A Jew in a non-Jewish world , he is haunted by the fear of being captured. Based on the novel by Kazimierz Brandys.Art House & International DVD Video
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