Original / alternative title: Tajemnica Westerplatte
Categories: bombardment movies infantry movies last stand movies siege movies trenches movies
1939 Battle of WesterplatteDirector: Pawel Chochlew
Laguages: Polish
At the beginning of the World War 2 small outpost of Polish army is under attack and the officers are divided on what should they do.
1939 Battle of Westerplatte (Polish title "The Secret of Westerplatte") is another approach to the famous Polish last stand at the beginning of the World War II. On the dawn of 1st September 1939 small Polish guard unit near Gdansk was one of the first targets of German invasion - heavy artillery of battleship Schleswig-Holstein and German aircraft attacked the outpost as preparation for land units to advance. The strategic plan of Polish headquarters, for less than 200 poorly armed soldiers, was just to delay aggressors for few hours until the reinforcements from mainland will arrive. But that plan wasn’t taking under the consideration that it will be full scale conflict and how huge the advantage of Germans will be. Major Henryk Sucharski, in charge of the Westerplatte outpost, received the orders from his superiors to defend the area for a day or two until the additional forces can reach them, but soon he realized that there is no way there ever will be any reinforcements. Still he convinced his men to keep their last stand and repel wave after wave of German attacks.
Since this is third movie about the same events you could expect it to be more in-depth look at the battle, but unfortunately this time creators decided to offer not a war movie, but psychological drama that could be a start of national debate if the heroes of Westerplatte actually were heroes or not (thus the Polish title "The Secret of Westerplatte"). Since there are very little materials about what was going on in the minds of the defenders (most of them died during the war) every theory could be as good as the other and every scenario of events is equally plausible, so creators managed to show slightly different look on demeanor of Sucharski and other officers.
As for war movie it is poorly done, with not very inspired acting, pathetic special effects and plot written just to fulfill one purpose - to ask the question "did they wanted to surrender or not?" - and what is worse not even to answer the question, just ask it, which makes the whole project pointless.
Our rating
4.4
Film value
3 / 10
Realism factor
3 / 5
Adventure factor
2 / 5
Historical accuracy
3 / 5
1939 Battle of Westerplatte
World War II (1936-1945) Invasion of Poland (1 Sep 1939) Battle of Westerplatte (1 Sep 1939)
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