What and why the director Hoffman changed in the popular novel "With Fire and Sword" while filming

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Historical films always provoke debate, controversy and heated debate among historians, critics and film lovers. Each, as they say, has its own truth. One of these epics in world cinema was painting by Polish director Jerzy Hoffmann "With Fire and Sword", released on wide screens 20 years ago. None of its creators could even imagine that this film, made in Eastern Europe, telling about the relationship between the two Slavic peoples, would arouse such intense interest among the public and such a resonant confrontation among critics. Nevertheless, facts are stubborn things, they speak for themselves.

With Fire and Sword, a Polish historical feature film directed by renowned director Jerzy Hoffman in 1999, it was released as a 4-part mini-series for television. The premiere of this film attracted over seven million viewers to Polish cinemas, and its distribution revenues in Poland exceeded $ 26 million, which was much higher than Titanic and Avatar. It was held with great success both in Western Europe and on the territory of the former Soviet Union, where the viewer knew about Jerzy Hoffman from the films "The Witch Doctor", "Pan Volodyevsky", "The Leper", "The Flood".

A few words about the novel and its author

First of all, I would like to say that the plot of the film is based on the novel of the same name, which is the first part of the "Trilogy" by the Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz. A classic of Polish literature, honorary academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Henryk Sienkiewicz was a brilliant historical novelist. Along with Hugo, Dumas, Tolstoy, he was able to quite reliably describe the great historical events of past eras, paying a lot of attention to real personalities - who made history. In 1905, Senkevich was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "For Outstanding Services in the Field of the Epic."

The novel "With Fire and Sword" reflects the dramatic events of the 17th century that took place in Ukraine, during the years of the popular uprising led by Bohdan Khmelnitsky, which subsequently led to the reunification of Ukraine with Russia. This is a fascinating reading about harsh times, about brave people, bright characters, exceptional destinies.

The Commonwealth was engulfed in the fire of war, which flared up because of a quarrel between the Cossack colonel Bogdan Khmelnitsky and Pan Chaplinsky, who brutally beat the colonel's son and kidnapped his beloved. As a result, the offended Khmelnitsky raised the Zaporozhye Sich, called on the Crimean Tatars under the leadership of Tugan-Bey and went to war against King Vladislav.

For more details about the novel, about its characters and events, as well as about the author himself, read the review: Why for the heroes of Henryk Sienkiewicz's legendary novel "With Fire and Sword", readers ordered prayer services and wore mourning.

A few words about the creator of the film - Jerzy Hoffman

Jerzy was born in 1932 in Krakow, and in 1939 at the age of 7 he was deported with his parents to Siberia. The Hoffman family returned to Poland only after the end of World War II. It so happened that Jerzy received the profession of a cinematographer in Moscow. In 1955 he graduated from the Moscow Institute of Cinematography, in the same year he made his debut as a director. Ten years later, Hoffman married a Kiev woman, Valentina Trakhtenberg, with whom he was married until her death in 1998. By the way, it was to her that Hoffmann dedicated his film "With Fire and Sword".

As a result of all the vicissitudes of life, Jerzy, in addition to the usual Russophobia for the Poles, developed a respectful attitude towards Ukraine. That is why Hoffmann himself has always believed that Sienkiewicz's view of history incites enmity between Poles and Ukrainians. And therefore, the director did not intend to provoke a fire between Poland and Ukraine, starting to create the film. He made significant changes to his script, thus deciding to get around the rough edges.

The publicist Grazyna Tsekhomska wrote about the film "With Fire and Sword" as follows:

What Hoffmann removed from the events described in the novel, and what he added from himself to his film

Of course, it was impossible to do without political overtones in the picture. Therefore, no one was particularly surprised that the film version of "With Fire and Sword" showed a scene of Bohdan Khmelnitsky feasting with the Russian boyars, which, in principle, could not be Senkevich's novel. Because at that time the Moscow state did not intervene in conflicts on the territory of present-day Ukraine, while maintaining quite friendly relations with the Commonwealth.

And in the epilogue of the film, completely off-screen, there was a story about how the Russian Empress Catherine the Great, after a number of different historical events that took place in Ukraine and Poland, destroyed the Zaporozhye Sich and took part in the division of the Commonwealth and annexed the Crimean Khanate to Russia.

In Poland itself, critics paid special attention not so much to this attack by Hoffmann against Russia, but to the fact that Jerzy deviated from the original source, trying to smooth over the rough edges. Guided by the rules of political correctness adopted in the West, he, as far as he could, removed from the lexicon of his characters words like “savages”, “rabble” and “herd”, which the author of the novel used many times in relation to the population of present-day Ukraine and Belarus.

An interesting fact is that the film did not show the epilogue of the novel, described by Senkevich, as the battle of Berestechko, which ended in a crushing defeat and death of the Cossack army in a quagmire. Jerzy Hoffman removed this battle on purpose.

Prehistory of the creation of the motion picture "With Fire and Sword"

During his entire career, the Polish director Jerzy Hoffman filmed many of Sienkiewicz's novels, as he was very subtly able to feel the spirit of his literary work. He has embodied the legendary Senkevich Trilogy on the screen for thirty years, starting from the end, namely with "Pan Volodyevsky", which was released in 1969. Then there was The Deluge, which came out in 1973 and was nominated for an Oscar in 1975. But Jerzy Hoffmann's idea to film Henryk's novel "With Fire and Sword" arose only towards the end of the 1980s.

However, in those years it was impossible to implement the grandiose plan. First, for political reasons, since the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse. Sienkiewicz's novel was extremely one-sided describing the Polish-Ukrainian conflict of the 17th century, demonstrating the moral superiority of the Poles, and the Ukrainians, attributing only wild hostility. Therefore, in the days of "socialist democracy" this story had no chance to appear on the cinema screens.

Only ten years later, having finally resolved the issue of funding, Hoffmann began to implement his plan. To do this, he had to mortgage all his property and take out a bank loan as a private person. The film's budget was 6.5 million dollars and was considered the highest budget of all Polish films made up to that time. All the funds invested by the director appeared before the viewer on the screen with impressive battle scenes, expensive costumes and, of course, the participation of stars, both Polish, Ukrainian and Russian.

As a result, more than 350 actors and 20 thousand extras were involved in the film. The cameramen filmed more than 130 kilometers of film. The special effects were created by Machine Shop, which previously worked on the blockbusters Terminator 2, Judgment Day and Braveheart. But Goffman invited the Ukrainian stuntmen for his picture, because as soon as they were able to show the high class of horse riding.

The film was released in 1999. And the viewer saw a picture where Hoffmann placed political accents in a completely different way than Senkevich, this film adaptation became more a melodrama with battle scenes than agitation with political overtones.

Four-part Melodrama "With Fire and Sword"

As it should be, for exciting adventure novels, there is everything: constant battles and fights, romantic love, adventures of heroes welded together by strong male friendship, as well as a lot of politics, inconvenient for the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries.

However, Hoffman decided that the most reliable, albeit a kind of guarantee that the film "With Fire and Sword" would not be considered propaganda, would be an international cast. In the melodrama, the director involved Polish (of course, the majority of them), Ukrainian and Russian artists.

Recall at least the genius Bogdan Stupka in the image of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, as well as one of the main villains - the Cossack colonel Yurko Bogun, played by Alexander Domogarov. Yes, she played so well that many girls did not understand the choice of the main character - the beautiful Polish woman Elena Kurtsevich (Isabella Skorupko), who preferred the Polish hussar Jan Skshetuski (Michal Zhebrovsky) to the dashing ataman Bohun.

By the way, the enterprising Poles on the popularity of the Russian actor, in whom all the young Polish women were en masse in love, did a good business: in Poland they released a dark beer "Bohun" with a portrait of Alexander Domogarov, so that everyone could get drunk with feelings in the literal sense and at the same time admire the subject adoration. By the way, the insane popularity of Domogarov brought the actor to the stage of the local theater, where, after the end of filming, he even played in performances, not knowing Polish. According to many critics, it was precisely in this film that he was the most vivid, memorable, albeit not entirely positive character.

An interesting detail: the Tatar murzu Tugai-bey was played by the legendary Polish actor Daniel Olbrykhsky, who played the role of Tugai-bey's son, Azya Tugai-beevich in the film "Pan Volodyevsky" thirty years ago. In the melodrama, a significant role is assigned to the healer-witch Gorpyna, played by the well-known Ukrainian actress Ruslana Pysanka. The viewer was especially shocked by the tragic death of her heroine, when superstitious Polish warriors drive an aspen stake into the chest of an already killed witch.

Why Bohdan Stupka agreed to star in Jerzy Hoffman's film

Nevertheless, the most striking unforgettable personality of Hoffman's film is the Cossack Colonel Bogdan Khmelnitsky, who was brilliantly played by Bogdan Silvestrovich Stupka, the famous Ukrainian actor. After the release of the film on the big screens, the artist became a real hero not only in Poland, but also in Australia, America and Canada, where the premiere of the melodrama "With Fire and Sword" also took place.

Of course, for Stupka, as for a Ukrainian, this was not an easy role and not an easy decision, given the ambiguous historical context in Senkevich's presentation. Nevertheless, the actor took this step only because Jerzy Hoffmann took on this picture. - Goffman will say after filming. And in general, it seemed that the actor Stupka was simply born to play the roles of historical characters.

And Bogdan Silvestrovich to all the advice of well-wishers to refuse the role will answer: And they accepted. Because talent combined with wisdom can be many times more convincing than the arguments of reason, "oppressed by complexes, whose rotten roots remained in the distant 17th century." Then our ancestors glorified themselves by fighting on the battlefield, and today they, combining creative efforts, glorified themselves by making a film about it.

What remained behind the scenes of the film

Before the screening of the film in Ukraine, Bohdan Stupka, giving an interview, told a funny story that happened during the filming of the film, about how he took his "horse" to a restaurant.

And in conclusion, I would like to note that Jerzy Hoffmann's film turned out to be very colorful, interesting, exciting and dynamic, not causing too much negativity. There are no guilty or villains here, each has its own harsh truth and, most importantly, honor that leads them along the roads of life and war.

However, people who are seriously ill with excessive patriotism, it is still better to refrain from watching it.

Continuing the theme of historical films reflecting the opposition of the Zaporozhye Cossacks to the Polish gentry, read in our magazine: Why in the USSR they could not make a film about Taras Bulba and for which later its distribution was banned in Ukraine.