1920 And All That...

Well I've now watched Battle of Warsaw and can confirm with some relief that it does not feature a Leopard 1A4 in it! What it does have - and to any wargamer this is so freaking cool - FT17's in action!

The film, Bitwa Warszawska 1920 (Battle of Warsaw 1920), to give it it's proper name, may not be the greatest work of cinema ever from a character development point of view and some of the acting is a bit suspect, but as war films go it is pretty damn good. The battle scenes are consistently well done, the attention to detail is fantastic, and the scale is immense. The Red cavalry army looks like an army, hundreds of infantry advance in waves not a dozen, antiquated armoured cars roll across the countryside it is all very, very impressive. There are also some wonderful modelling ideas, Soviet cavalry trombone band anyone?

It would have been easy for the film to be overly nationalistic but it is not. Polish troops run from the enemy, some are portrayed as self-serving bullies, the problems with troops fighting side by side when two years previous they fought in the Austrian, German and Russian armies is shown.

Overall, hugely enjoyable and anyone who likes or good war film along the lines of A Bridge Too Far or The Longest Day or has an interest in twentieth century warfare should pop over to Amazon right now and buy a copy. It'll be the best £3.39 you'll ever spend! Did I mention it has FT-17's in action?