YOU MAY have to queue to see Man of Iron. It's worth it. This film, winner of the Cannes Grand Prix, is riveting.
Sequel to Man of Birkut, a Stakhanovite worker-hero of the 50s, Man of Iron moves to celebration of the shipyard occupation, with a new worker-hero, Maciek, the son of Birkut. Maciek appeared briefly at the end of the first film; now he plays a leading rôie.
After the death of his father - shot by the police the Gdansk strike of Maciek abandons his university studies 1o become shipyard worker, just as his father was.
He propagandises against the He sticks up posters and is arrested by the secret police — he has acted prematurewnen we move, father had said, 'we'll all move together'.
Then Anna Walentinowycz, of 30 years stand shipyard worker ding, SaCKed. promptly seizes the inand strike action. The Gdansk shipyard strike of 1980 begins.
The bureaucracy Hallocuvics. licalcils. the workers stand firm. Increasingly the bureaucrats are humiliated as their attempts to break the strike fail, and the workers prove they control the shipyard in a disciplined Way.
Alcohol is prohibited in the shipyard. Nobody can enter with a special And the pass. WORKCES refuse to repeat the mistake ot 970 — thev will not be drawn onto the streets to be shot down Agnieska, the film student in Man of Marble also reappears — this time Maciek's wife. Her studio pass confiscated, she has relinquished her Warsaw for a life as a political activist in Gdansk. This has involved sacrifices: she has had to send her child away, and at the beginning of the film she is in prison. 1970: Students carry Marble, the film about Gdansk in 1980. to a Just as Man of Marble had media worker, Agnieska, in a central role, so also does Man of Iron. But whereas Agnieska was principled seeker of truth. the TV reporter of the second film is a semialcoholic hack, weak and greedy, who was seen sell by the authorities to discredit the strike by prounstable counterrevolutionary in the pay of the CIA.
Never enthusiastic The shifts allegiance Dalt Wal through the film. 'Whoever wins', he I'm says. going to get a kick in the pants'. He gets his when the shipyard workers expose him as an agent.
The fictional elements in the tilm are interwover to great effect with doculucital y material, Val. ticularly film of the Gdansk riots in 1970, when protesting workers were brutally shot down in the streets by the police.
ne centran his that Man Iron that sonoral is sureneunne individual, alone, can achieve working-class. disunited, can only suffer defeat. 1968, the students got no workers on the streets appealed to the students for help, they remained inside behind closed doors. The intelligentsia was silent.
But in 1980, united in Solidarnosc, the Polish working Clas feels 1LS strength. confidence grows. The film ends with the body of a murdered worker Maciek Tomczyk - the 'Man of Iron Solidarnoso's triumph Gdansk.
There are flaws in Man of Iron. One is the sentimentalsation of Agnies. ka. In Man of Marble she is the Polish stereotype of the American woman denim-clad, neurotically chain-smoking In Man of Iron, throwing away her cigaretts, she for blouse and skirt, and her swabs calls independence for a supsecondary role whom Sile positively hero. worships.
She still a strong woman: she bears her separation from her child with courage, and her imprisonment jauntiness. But the Agnieska of Man of Marble would never have uttered feminist-wincing lines such as 'I just knew it had to be a church wedding ' agine the At rieska of the easy first film dewy-eyed white looking like a cover picture of 'Brides' These reflect the cerera sentiments Catholic Polanc part at least of a woman's function is to be virtuous man's conscience and decorative enough to have her hand kissed frequentThe second flaw is the uncritical portrayal of the church. The church wedding, of course, attended real Lech Walesa, not actor). The shrines. The The church and Cisco.
Solidarnosc walking blissfully hand-in-hand.
No hint that the church might in any way manipulate or cash in on the struggle of the workers for its own ends or attempt to 'moderate' their struggle. Moving Last Christmas in Warsaw I saw a line of people as long as a bread queue waiting patiently to see the crib in the Basilica.
There the alcove, along with Baby Jesus and the obligatory animals were the shipyard cranes of Gdansk and the monu ment dedicated to the dead of 1970.
Don't let these criticisms put you off seeing the film, though. Man memorial to the workers memorial to workers WCIC shot down in 1970 The bureaucracy tried conceal their deaths.
The bodies were put in plastic sacks and thrown into army lorries, to be buried in hidden graves ›opulai heroes of the masses. struggle lives on in the daily fight of the whole working class.
That struggle brought to life by Man of It is working class ror. history most dramatic. In Wajda's own words: 'In general history Scotland ABERDEEN: SC available at Boon tom Bo 284S. For more Mat available Dunder Than Cig sa Pri 4530 B EDINBURGH: Thur 1.15-5.15pm Bu: Station End, Princes Ist May Books, or Better Books, For rest Rd. local act 4.30-5. 30pm at Central Station. AlS "Cresswell Wales available 1-0-8 Books NEWPORT: every Sat in town centre England BATH: SC on sale at 1985 Books nurside lil s. Sat 1i-in.
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