This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

As a movie based on a book that is a staple of Polish reading, it is bound to attract its adherents and detractors. But overall it has enough merit to it to warrant at least a single viewing.The story is set in the 17th century, during a period of strife on the eastern fringes of Polish territory, in today's Ukraine. The main plot centers around a rebellion of Cossacks against the oppression of Polish landowners, in the greater setting of a conflict between Poland, Muscovy and the Tartars.The book was written from a Polish standpoint, so there is some obvious favoritism shown, but the main characters are not one dimensional. The motivations of the characters are clearly explained, and the good guy is not always good, and the bad guy is not always bad. The political intricacies may be a bit confusing, but at its heart this movie is a love triangle, so as long as you focus on that, you can follow along.The main reason to watch this movie is visual. If you are one of those people who likes to have a movie transport them to another time and place, this movie is for you. The costumes, props and scenery are simply beautiful. All the characters speak in the language they are supposed to speak, so you have conversations in Polish, Ukranian and even Tartar. The performances by the main characters are wonderful, ranging from comedy to romance to drama to action.The movie has a bit of something for everyone. If you like action, the battle sequences are fantastic, very massive in scale. If you like romance, the lead characters are not too hard on the eyes, and their passionate feelings come across the screen quite strongly. There is a very strong comedy element as well, but you might have to understand Polish to appreciate it fully.The special effects in this movie leave a bit to be desired. It certainly is a bloody, and at times gory film, but really no worse than a lot of recent US offerings.If I was to use a US movie as a thematic comparison, Last of the Mohicans might be a good choice, with the hero looking for his love in a wild and savage environment.Overall I would recommend this movie to fans of historical films. The plot is fairly straightforward, so you can focus on watching the visuals instead.

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.

Being Polish, I was excited to finally see this film. Family, freinds, and others explained at length how wonderful the film was, and how accurately it portrayed the novel of the same title by Sienkiewicz. Well in my honest oppinion, they were all utterly wrong, and I dont mean just a smidgen either. The film was horrid, it was a poor adaptation of the book, the cinematography resembled that of a C student at your local community college, and Scorupco in the lead was, to put it bluntly, horrid. I wholeheartedly believe that this film could have been much much better, and at times I even found myself laughing at its poor quality. Well as they say c'est la vie.

This film is for people who know a lot about the history for Poland. I didn't really enjoy watching this film for many reasons. First of all, most of the scenes were too long or too short. There was excess death scenes, blood, that were not needed in this movie. This is a great example of Hollywood movies. There was no character development. There are great battles and a lot about the history of Poland. Many people have to read the book that the film is based on first, then they'll get the whole picture.