Jack Strong (2014, Poland)
Categories: political movies spy movies
Jack StrongDirector: Wladyslaw Pasikowski
Czas: 120 minut
Laguages: Polish / Russian / English
Jack Strong war movie
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Jack Strong war movie
Czas: 120 minut
2024-04-07 / 1970-01-01
During Cold War disilussioned Polish intelligence officer decides to contact CIA in order to stop the World War III that would destroy his homeland.
1970s in Poland, where during the Cold War Soviet army kept their units, officially as part of the Warsaw Pact defence system, unofficially to keep Poland loyal to the Moscow. Ryszard Kuklinski, high rank Polish intelligence officer, is responsible for forward planning, one of his tasks was preparing the intervention in Czechoslovakia in 1968, another was to create plan for World War III in case of Cold War getting hot. As it turns out his plan is almost exactly the same what Soviets had in mind, but it took them years to prepare it. He is promoted to higher rank and gains the access to classified informations. The protests of the Polish workers in 1970 were brutally pacified by the militia and army with 42 civilians dead and over 1000 wounded. This was turning point for Kuklinski - he realised the communist system must collapse. The classified data he received showed that Soviets were not only preparing themselves for war against NATO, they actually were setting up their forces for attack. He knew that in case of conflict the first step for Soviets will be the tactics of "burned ground" - creating the buffer zone inaccessible for enemy forces, which meant nuclear bombing of Poland and part of East Germany. Kuklinski decides to contact "the other side" - he sends a letter to American embassy in Germany stating he is ready to give them informations about Soviet secrets. But CIA suspects it is provocation set up by the Soviets.
Film based on the true story of Ryszard Kuklinski, who in the middle of Cold War decided to became the informant for CIA. Kuklinski for years was in Poland rather controversial figure - communist government regarded him a traitor, who betrayed his own country, on the other hand his motivation was to stop Cold War from turning into World War III that would most probably turned his country into nuclear wasteland. Kuklinski himself stated that he never betrayed his own country, he was betraying Soviets, who were occupying Poland. Film was made by Wladyslaw Pasikowski, who in past was responsible for few very embarrassing cheap thrillers based on poor scripts and full of horrible acting, so Jack Strong wasn’t expected to be much better. Surprisingly Pasikowski managed to pull this one off - with only few minor flaws it is well made political thriller and interesting look on the battle of the spies behind the Iron Curtain.
Our rating
7.2
Film value
7 / 10
Realism factor
4 / 5
Adventure factor
3 / 5
Historical accuracy
4 / 5
