Knights of the Teutonic Order (1960)

aka Black Cross

Original title: Krzyzacy

The early 15th Century. Poland (or to be more precise what would become the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) still suffers from frequent attacks on supposed pagans as well as trade routes and attempts to grasp the country’s sovereignty by the Teutonic Order (who in real history as well as in the movie were a group unpleasant even by the standards of fighting Christians of the medieval era). Young nobleman Zbysko of Bogdaniec (Mieczylsaw Kalenik) heroically stumbles into the conflict more than he at first chooses to partake in it when he falls in love on first sight with the beautiful (yet frankly completely lacking in any kind of personality) Danusia (Grazyna Stanizewska). Danusia’s main characteristic is being the daughter of one Jurand of Spychow (Andrzej Szalawski). That man never was on anything but violent terms with the Teutonic Order but has become an effective guerrilla fighter and a major thorn in the Germans’ side ever since they horribly – and needlessly – murdered his wife, Danusia’s mother.

Given that state of affairs, it is little wonder that Zbysko soon finds himself fighting the Teutonic Order too, once he elopes to Danusia to be married and has to cope with the usual problems of heroes in this kind of epic: kidnapped fiancés, intrigues, duels, recurring comic relief characters, and so on and so forth. There is, of course, also another woman, his childhood friend Jagienka Zychówna (Urszula Modrzynska), who is rather more interesting to modern eyes than Danusia’s medieval ideal of womanhood; pleasantly enough, the film seems to agree there too, or at least never criticizes her for being opinionated and capable. The plot culminates in 1410s Battle of Grunwald that started the decline of the Teutonic Order and mostly ended them as a threat for Poland and Lithuania.

As far as I understand it, Aleksander Ford’s historical epic based on the highly influential novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz was something of a blockbuster in Poland, and still is a beloved film. It’s not terribly difficult to see why, for even though it does have its share of problems (I’ll get to them later), it carries has an undeniable power and conviction. It also manages the trick of being a large patriotic epic without becoming unpleasant about its patriotism. That’s a difficult balancing act, but one Ford seems perfectly committed to.

Don’t misunderstand me: the Teutonic Order of the film is a group of horrible German people doing horrible things to the Poles and Poland (as historically Germans – I’d rather not phrase this “we Germans” – alas have repeatedly done), and the film does very consciously let the Order and its practices echo Nazi iconography and ideology. However Ford is also more fair-minded than you’d expect, never dehumanizing the enemy but giving even the worst of them scenes that provide them with depth, a degree of humanity and even moments that understand they are not villains in their own minds; which doesn’t make them less horrible, but more human. This thread of the film pays off particularly well very late in the film when a mutilated Jurand forgives the man responsible for his fate, a sequence that is particularly moving because Jurand’s earlier ordeal at the hands of the Order is a cinematically particularly effective sequence where the film takes on the guise of Gothic horror and brings the desperation and cruelty of the moment to life with near-expressionist sets and lighting.

Jurand, the members of the Teutonic Order and Jagienka are certainly the most interesting characters of the cast. In the tradition of many an epic historic movie, the film’s nominal romantic leads are certainly courageous and virtuous but they are also desperately bland, with nothing in their personalities that’d draw a viewer to care about them. The other definite weakness of Knights – and one I’d be surprised to learn not to be caused by an attempt to press as much of Sienkiewicz’s book into not exactly short three hours running time – is the film’s tendency to the episodic, to introduce scenes and characters that aren’t terribly important for mood, theme or character, and to take the scenic root a bit too often. That’s of course a problem the film shares with many a long historical epic – keep in mind you are reading the opinions of a guy who thinks Laurence of Arabia could lose half an hour or so here – and perhaps just something to be expected of this kind of movie.


However, there are so many inventive, moving and captivating scenes in Knights of the Teutonic Order I’m perfectly okay to have to drag myself through some weak ones, too. As a director, Ford is particularly adept at changing his tone and style for the needs of any given scene, so there’s a real heft and even a sense of sadness to the climactic battle scene, that gothic horror whiff to Jurand’s ordeal, a clean simplicity to the more peaceful moments, and generally the impression of a director who manages to shoot no two scenes in exactly the same way yet still manages to create a film that is an artistic whole.