The Deluge

A bum-shifting 17th century war epic drawn from a highly popular Henryk Sienkiewicz novel. Formations march through impressive countryside, finally battling it out with a flurry of horses, cannon fire, wounded bodies and spurting blood - none of which comes over visually with the force one might expect, despite nice colour photography in shades of brown. Worming his way through it all, miraculously unscathed, is the courageous adventurer (Olbrychski) who also finds time for a little routine romancing. A long trek at three hours, though it does pick up its heels towards the end, but in Poland, presented in two parts, it ran for 312 minutes.