"Pan Wolodyjowski" does not rank with some of the great film epics, such as "Lawerence of Arabia," but there is definitely much to impress the lover of historical films. This is especially true if, like me, you have grown tired of all the usual times and places that make it repeatedly into film and wish to discover a new realm of barbaric splendor and excitement. In the late-1600s, while colonists in America were struggling to defend their western frontier, there was another borderland - a "Wild East" if you will - between Europe and Asia. The frontier between the Ottoman Empire and Europe lay through Poland, Ukraine, and southeastern Europe, and each side was trying to invade the other's. This was a world of Tatars and Turks, Cossacks and Polish "winged hussars," scimitars and lances, fur caps and feathers everywhere.

This film adaptation of the last of Henryk Sienkiewicz' historical trilogy is a bit dated in its looks - women with big hair and bangs, the colors a bit too bright - but with a cast of thousands the story the film tells is compelling and filled with enough pitched battles, chases, explosions, hair's-breadth escapes, love stories, strong male and female characters, rapes, murders, impalings and suicides to keep all but the most special-effects dazed teenager entertained. But more than that, this film is a gateway into forgotten realms. Can anyone watch this or the other two episodes in the trilogy ("The Deluge," and "With Fire and Sword") and ever listen to another "dumb Polack" joke again? I don't think so.

Out of three films made by Mr. Hoffman (Potop, Ogniem i Mieczem, Pan Wolodyjowski) upon the trilogy of Henryk Sienkiewicz, this film is probably the weakest. Strange to notice that this book is the last in the trilogy but was filmed first, so Hoffman preserved this backward method to the end. I only wish he could make new versions of this and Potop films as well! Anyway, Pan Wolodyjowski is a fine portrayal of the 17th century Poland, its wars against Tatars and other nomadic armies. What makes this film so brilliant is the superb battle scene shooting, graphical yet not so unbearable violence and clear patriotic (some may call it nationalistic) sentiment towards Poland. As I wrote, this is not the best film in the series, but try to watch them all three and see how well Hoffman did his job.

Quite frankly, I was thoroughly captivated. This was made in 1969 and had there were those moments that seemed a bit dated, but nothing sufficient enough to dull the goings on in the film. I'll confess, I always find the love stories in the Trilogy to be a bit contrived (people do seem to fall in and out of love a tad too quickly), but here it was lively and fairly fun. There was considerable effort to make Wolodyjowski and Basia compatible in love and temperament. It was also fascinating to see a young Daniel Olbrychski in his heyday. The characters, major and minor, were all well developed, and the story invigorating. I wanted to fight some Ottoman Turks myself by the end.