This is the darkest depiction of WW2 I've ever seen. Kanal is full of amazing, bleak and ghostly imagery, it left me with a feeling of great discomfort.

:(

It gets off to a bit of a slow start, but once the characters descend into the sewers, it gets moving quickly. The photography is great, and the ending is haunting, but I never really connected with the characters as much as I would have liked.

Impressive cinematography that only adds to the film's harrowing, claustrophobic and desperate atmosphere.

A harrowing and intense look at the Polish Kanalization during the Nazi raids; the love, loyalty, and emotion these people share in their last hours of life. One of the greatest, emptiest, and most tragic endings I have ever seen.

958

Great film.

#989

One of the most frightening war movies ever made.

Dantean, labyrinthian. Not perfection, but several sequences including the last 20 minutes are fantastic.

Wajda's first major success. Highly acclaimed. Part 2 of Wajda's "War Trilogy," preceded by "A Generation" and followed by "Ashes and Diamonds."

If this film is not in your tier 10 after you watch it.. try watching baseball or hockey just stay away from cinema.

I don't understand the complaint that this film is unbelievable, as it's clearly not meant to be a realistic depiction of war. Such critics are not approaching the film on its own terms. As a surrealistic horror film, shot from the perspective of the damned as they march to their deaths, it's an utterly captivating descent into darkness, both literally and figuratively. Even read as a strict war film, however, it's a brutal and uncompromising vision without sermons or unnecessary heroics.

holy fuck. totally unforgettable, atmospheric nightmare of a film.

Look up 'grim' in the dictionary and 1957's "Kanal" should make an appearance. Haunting.

A bleak as all hell war movie that stays with you for a while. The sewer scenes were a tad too dark at times, but it added to the claustrophobic atmosphere. Painful stuff, with a harrowing ending to boot.

FUCK

Above ground, Kanal is a fairly conventional war drama. But once the action shifts to the sewers it becomes a masterfully shot nightmare, with some of the most gut-wrenching moments in any film that I've ever seen.

Claustrophobic as hell, a good - but not perfect - one.

I couldn't help but think the making of documentary would be so much more interesting then the actual film as I watched this. It's really well made and has some great shots and cool tricks and it would be cool to see how they did it. Moves along pretty slow at times and doesn't really have any great or memorable characters but it is brutal and extremely depressing so if you're into that check it out.

I never figured The Third Man could be topped for sewer scenes, but this just blows right past it and leaves it in the dust. So dingy, dirty and depressing, full of bold, striking (and horrific) imagery. Wajda makes really great use of several motifs here, not the least of which is the composer's insane, pied-paper walk through the sewers to his eventual death. And the ending is brutally effective. One of the absolute great war films.

Just couldn't get into this. Kanal is strikingly unrealistic and the acting is just bad. Its only saving grace is the affecting darkness, literal and symbolic, that consumes the second half of the movie.

You could feel the claustrophobia and suffocation of the sewers; You could smell the overbearing fumes. Kanal is a masterful depiction of suffering on Earth.

Features some truly amazing shots. In an impressive one-take opening, we're introduced to each of the main characters and told that they're about to die, a perfect way to set up the film. Another powerful moment is the horror facing the first character to exit the sewers. Some of the best scenes involve the striking-looking (almost-)couple Daisy and Jacek. Now, on to the flaws: There's a distancing staginess to the acting, and some of the plot turns are less than believable.

Drags you through war. Only complaint is that I couldn't really get into the characters so much (but still seeing the shit they go through is tough). The sewer part is easily the highlight... it's pretty scary and this is one of those films that want to make you feel above all else. Fuck conventional film making, this makes you feel claustrophobic because it's drenched in darkness.

A deeply disturbing existential piece about a group's attempt to escape the Nazis through a sewer. Excellent.

989

Incredibly depressing and bleak tale of a group of Warsaw Uprising resistance fighters, doomed from the start but doggedly trudging ahead. Much of the film takes place in the sewers, but aboveground isn't much better, as Wajda gives new meaning to the term "war-torn" in his recreation of Warsaw, 1944. There is some truly masterful camerawork here, especially the opening 4-minute tracking shot. I didn't care for the composer character, but other than that, an astonishing and powerful movie.

A crushing war film that plays out like a fever dream, with characters meandering through identical corridors of sewers mired in shit trying to find a way out of their hopeless endeavor. Though it's specifically about the Warsaw Uprising, it captures a sentiment of despair for Poland's experience throughout the whole war, one that is perhaps unique though not dissimilar to the occupation of other nations. It's a film that's properly naked in its ambitions.

Very dark, both thematically and visually with wonderful use of minimum lighting. I wish I could give this a better score because it really is a masterfully crafted film, but it trudged along (heh) pretty slowly during parts in the middle.

I was unprepared for how much this really does feel (and plot itself) like a horror flick. Works both for and against it.

Has really good scenes and a dark story. And holy shit, that's one of the most depressing endings I've ever seen

A powerful, bleak film.