Mah-Zie
It seems to me that all means of expression are guite justified in this movie. It forced me to read the whole source trilogy (Ogniem i mieczem, Potop, Pan Wolodyjowski) by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Characters are very humaly, realistic and true. Battles are very naturalistic.
arkudaki
Ogniem i Mieczem has amazed me!Indeed with such "small budget"(9 million dollars even for Polish cinema,europe is big) well Hoffman made a impressing historical movie. Nice battle scenes,costumes,landscapes,the characters are interesting especially villain and you can learn a lot from Polish-Ukrainian history. Something different from "common" western european or US history... Some will say that expected more...maybe true but remember..it is not 60 or 100 million budget movie with famous stars...it is european,pure polish production and has nothing to be jealous from hollywood. Actors did good work,as Hoffman in direction. of course plot can be weak in some parts but is not always easy to copy from a book,in detail and perfection especially Sienkiewicz ones. I recommend this movie,am happy to see historical european productions with other perspective and not in american way. You will not regret seeing that movie. I give it 9/10.
rekeda
I watched this movie after a friend told me that this was the most expensive movie in the Polish history. Probably that is true, but the movie does not look like a piece of art.Although the movie does not specifically targets Polish viewers, others would hardly watch it - I bet few people would spend three hours trying to tie up numerous lines altogether. The movie has two key lines - a war between Polish nobles and Ukrainian Cossacks and a love story between one of the Polish officers and girl, that he met.The movie does not look like an action nor as an entertainment. But for the historical movie, it came out to be very straightforward - the characters are either too good or deadly evil and completely dump. There was too much blood on the screen. Even some of the details are really excessive. There was one guy out there who pledged to remain virgin until he axes three heads at once by his sward. What a hilarious pal! Eventually he somehow managed to do that, but .is that a historical movie or a show from the Worldwide Wrestling Federation all-star cast?Of course I should say that most of the actors were really good. But you can not save a bad plot with even the best actors in the world.
Mladen Radic
There is a scene at the beginning of this motion picture when one of the leading characters says that he had made a vow. A vow that he would remain virgin until he cuts three heads with one move of the sword. When you hear that, you know what you can expect. Is good to see a European movie which is directed perfectly, a spectacle with many action scenes, excellent actors and three hours in it's running time, is good to. But hey, people, where is the plot, where are the characters?! Oh, gee, I knew we forgot something!So, what's wrong? First, the plot. Story of battles between Cossacs and Polish in 15th century and a love story put there in the middle. All right, we know that all sides hate their enemies, but it's nothing new. My country was in war till five years ago, I know that war is awful, but `With fire and sword' is not an anti-war movie. Oh, no, and this is its second and biggest problem. Our `heroes' are introduced at the beginning of the movie, they are all nice & courageous and they fight against Cossacs and Turkish. And what do they do? They kill everyone, they torture, they act exactly like their enemies. So why should I trust them? They don't feel even a bit of pity, a bit of remorse, they don't have a single doubt about that if they should fight and kill. They go, they fight, they kill - and there are rivers of blood running on the screen. Cossacs and Turkish are shown like beasts, most of them are gays and there is even a sort of witch-lesbian(!) Our `heroes' are perfectly straight, they have even a beautiful Izabella Scorupco on their side, and they cut heads with sadistic pleasure. And they don't consider another option. Not even for a moment.Is that the message of the movie?
AD
