The Movie Everyone Saw: The Making of ‘Knights of the Teutonic Order’

fo_film_krzyzacy_ford_06_41470.jpg, default, Still from 'Knights of the Teutonic Order' directed by Aleksander Ford, 1960, photo: Polflim / East News

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The top three most popular movies in Polish film history are all adaptations of works by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Jerzy Hoffman’s ‘The Deluge’ and Władysław Ślesicki's ‘In Desert and Wilderness’ were both big hits, but neither could contend with Aleksander Ford’s record-breaking ‘Knights of the Teutonic Order’. Below, Vladimir Gromov discusses this epic film’s creation.

Over its tenure in movie theatres, Knights of the Teutonic Order (1960) drew an audience of 32 million viewers in Poland alone. Such attention was unheard of. The film distinctly conveyed the mood that prevailed in Poland in the late 1950s. The movie was imbued with victorious sentiments, the joy and pride of regaining the homeland, and the desire to endure for ages to come. It was based on events in the nation’s history – on heroic, even mythic story lines.

Such storylines are always to the liking of the authorities – they can be used as effective instruments of propaganda. But surprisingly, at the end of the 1950s, there was a brief period where there was relative concordance between the communist authorities and society in Poland. The regime wanted to make a monumental epic film. Filmmakers agreed to make it. Society received it with enthusiasm. It would only take a few years for the situation to drastically change.

An epic for its era

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Still from the film 'Knights of the Teutonic Order', directed by Aleksander Ford, 1960, photo: Polfilm / East News

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Scena z filmu "Krzyżacy", w reż. Aleksandra Forda, 1960. Na zdjęciu: Mieczysław Kalenik., fot. Polflim / East News

Yet in the 1950s, no one knew what the future had in store. They had to sort out the present first. The era of Bolesław Bierut, who had also been known as ‘little Stalin’, had begun for the country, fresh off the profoundly scarring destruction of World War II. Poland was forced under communist rule out of hopelessness. The country was exhausted from German occupation, war activities, mass executions and partitions. The communists promised stability and a national state had been restored with new borders.

Poland had indeed lost a large chunk of her territory to the east – this would become parts of the Ukrainian, Belarusian and Lithuanian Soviet Republics – but she would also gain extensive German lands that had a number of Polish inhabitants. These ‘returned lands’ included parts of Silesia, Pomerania, western Prussia, eastern Brandenburg and other regions, and were incorporated into the newly-minted Polish People’s Republic.

After Bierut’s mysterious death in Moscow, Władysław Gomułka came to power in 1956. The party official had himself been a victim of the communist authorities and had even served some time in prison for his political activities. There were great hopes connected with Gomułka. He spoke a great deal about a Polish nation-state and about independent politics, which had brought an end to the massive repression of his predecessors, though the ‘sworn friendship’ with the Soviet Union and communist ideology still flourished.

Gomułka wanted to create a new ideology in Poland – a socialist system with a nationalist slant. At the end of the 1950s, he gave Poles hope that their country would gain a level of normalcy. Cultural figures enthusiastically got to work making movies and writing books. New art tried to critically make sense of the recent past, which often displeased authorities. The censors continued their work.

Gomułka clearly understood the power of the ‘government order’ and saw how it was put to use in the USSR. He wanted something similar in Poland. Brilliant, high-budget films had the ability to reinforce the ideology and show the strength of a state capable of creating such large-scale productions.

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Still from the film 'Knights of the Teutonic Order', directed by Aleksander Ford, 1960, photo: Polfilm / East News

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Scena z filmu "Krzyżacy", w reż. Aleksandra Forda, 1960. Na zdjęciu: Grażyna Staniszewska., fot. Polflim / East News

Additionally, an important date was approaching. In 1960, Poland was preparing to celebrate the anniversary of one of the most significant events in its history – the 550th anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald, where the combined forces of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeated the army of the Teutonic Order, also known as the ‘Knights of the Cross’. The Teutonic Order was a militarised monastic organisation, created to conquer pagan lands. From the 13th to the 15th centuries, the order had a substantial presence in the Baltic region and was quite successful in its activities.

The struggle with the pagans allowed the construction and continuation of a structure that grew more and more to resemble a state. The German order conquered Old Prussia, returning it the German sphere, and took over some Polish lands as well. By 1410, coexistence with this small religious-militaristic organisation had become impossible. The Polish king Jagiełło established a union that would later become the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, took command of a large army, and routed the Teutonic forces. This defeat put an end to the order’s triumphant campaign and stalled German expansion into Polish lands. And, of course, the victory at Grunwald demonstrated that the new Polish-Lithuanian state was a viable force to be reckoned with.

Henryk Sienkiewicz dedicated his novel The Knights of the Cross to these events. In the novel, Sienkiewicz manages to create an intense story and memorable characters. For example, the writer was able to show all the complexity of the historical situation that preceded the legendary battle in the lives of his heroes.

Gomułka’s interest in this novel was clear. Among other things, one circumstance stuck out. In the mid-1950s the influence of West Germany, who still did not want to recognise Poland’s new borders, began to grow. A group of deputies formed in the Bundestag, demanding the return of the German ‘returned lands’. The tension was increasing. Because of this situation, the future film would not only be a mouthpiece for ideological agitation, but also a political instrument. The Knights of the Teutonic Order would show the entire world that the history of German oppression over the Poles did not start with World War II, but extended hundreds of years into the past.

Getting it made

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Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork, photo: B. & L. Okoński

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Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork, Photo by: B. and L. Okońscy

Filming Knights of the Teutonic Order turned out to be a difficult task both from an organisational standpoint and for purely creative reasons. It was decided that Aleksander Ford would direct the film. Ford was a principal director in Poland, famous even before the war. He reached the pinnacle of his authority in the 1940s, when he became the chief chronicler of the Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division, which was organised in Soviet territory. After the war, Ford joined the Polish United Workers’ Party (as the communist regime called itself in Poland), headed the directing department at the Łódż Film School, and continued to make movies.

His new films were made in the spirit of socialist realism, but the themes were more reminiscent of Italian neo-realism. But while Five Boys from Barska Street (1954) had a good amount of success and won a few awards, including some state awards, the picture The Eighth Day of the Week (1958), based on the story of the same name by Marek Hłasko, brought trouble for the director. The movie’s main characters were alcoholics and the surrounding reality was vile and depressing. Gomułka was outraged by the film and said that ‘he would not allow for Poles to be shown as a pack of drunkards’. Despite liberal concessions, he prohibited the release of The Eighth Day of the Week. So, surprisingly, the first film to be banned in Poland during the communist era was a picture by a leading director of the country, a party member no less. Audiences were only able to see The Eighth Day of the Week 25 years later, after Ford had already passed away. Even so, this incident did not prevent Gomułka from approving Ford as the director of Knights of the Teutonic Order.

Despite his inherent creative conservatism, Ford agreed to work with a script by Jerzy Stefan Stawiński, who had only just finished writing the script for Andrzej Wajda’s Canal. Stawiński had also worked on Andrzej Munk’s films Man on the Tracks and Eroica. As a matter of fact, Stawiński was a voice from the new wave of Polish cinema that would shake the authority of people such as Ford. This did not bother the classicist Ford, especially because the project would be difficult. He would have to create a script for a two-and-a-half-hour film from Sienkiewicz’s enormous literary tome.

Knights of the Teutonic Order – Image Gallery

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The filmmakers decided to focus on the storyline of Jurand of Spychów, a ruling nobleman who battles with the Teutonic knights on his lands and is a victim of their terrible revenge. Even though the main plot of the novel follows Zbyszko and Maćko of Bogdaniec, the movie’s main character was Jurand. Andrzej Szalawski, an actor with a very controversial life, was tapped for this role. At the beginning of World War II, Szalawski was drafted into the army as a lieutenant. After Poland was invaded by Germany and the Soviet Union, he ended up in Lviv, but he did not register there as a former officer of the Polish forces. Because of this, he avoided being shot at Katyń. When the Germans came, Szalawski got a job in Warsaw at the newsreel bureau, where he would read the Polish text for German newsreels. For Poles, he became the voice of the occupiers. After the war, he was tried for collaboration. He spent four years in prison and was only able to return to his profession in the mid-1950s. It's possible that this complicated history helped the actor transform himself into such a rich and tragic character on screen. Per the plot, Jurand makes a deal with the order in order to save his daughter – and undergoes monstrous torments because of this.

The other actors brought less baggage to the production. Ford had previously worked with Leon Niemczyk (famous for his appearance in Roman Polanski's Knife in the Water) and Emil Karewicz, who would play the knight Fulko de Lorche and King Jagiełło respectively. Aleksander Fogiel, who would play Maćko of Bogdaniec, was already a famous theatre actor. The theatre also gave the cast Henryk Borowski, who played the darkest role in the movie – Knight of the Order Siegfried de Löwe. And then there was the young Mieczysław Kalenik, playing the role of Zbyszko of Bogdaniec, who was completely unknown before Knights of the Teutonic Order. Ford happened to see him at a party for actors in Łódż and found out that Kalenik had only just finished theatre school.

There were more than a few good actors in Poland at that time. The difficulty was not in the choice of performers, but in the actual process of filming. Knights of the Teutonic Order was a challenge for Polish cinematography: a film of such large scale had never been made in the country before. The state opened its purse and allocated 38 million złoty for the production of the picture, which was an enormous sum – at the time, this budget could have funded as many as eleven more typical movies. Yet, for Knights of the Teutonic Order, the filmmakers would have to build complex sets, purchase new movie cameras for wide-angle shots and Eastman colour film, and make 28,000 costumes.

Restaging Grunwald

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Leon Niemczyk (& Jolanta Umecka) in his most famous film, 'Knife in the Water' by Roman Polanski, 1961, photo: Studio Filmowe Kadr / Filmoteka Narodowa/www.fototeka.fn.org.pl

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Kadr z filmu "Nóż w wodzie", reż. Roman Polański, 1961, Na zdjęciu: Jolanta Umecka i Leon Niemczyk, fot. Studio Filmowe Kadr / Filmoteka Narodowa/www.fototeka.fn.org.pl

The biggest question facing the production team was how to shoot the Battle of Grunwald. This scene looks amazing even now, when modern cinema is spoiled with computer-generated special effects. Of course, Ford did not have a computer – he hardly had enough ordinary extras. Ford could not use army and cavalry regiments for the filming – this wasn’t acceptable at the time. Five hundred horses were needed for the movie. Participants in the filming recall that the riders were recruited from the former cavalrymen of the Polish Army – it was these legendary men who charged the German tanks with sabres at the onset of the war. Several hundred cavalrymen of those that had survived the war would play Jagiełło’s army and the Teutonic Knights in the movie. For them, the filming became a kind of romantic adventure, a farewell to the cavalry.

Ford decided to exploit the opportunities of colour film as much as he could. His 15th century is not gloomy and grey, but an extravaganza of colours. Almost every scene impresses with the brilliant costumes of the heroes and the carnivalesque attire of the townspeople, knights and aristocrats. The Battle of Grunwald itself is a struggle between colour and black-and-white. The grim army of knights in white tunics with black crosses clashes with the multicoloured Polish-Lithuanian forces. And colour prevails!

Yet, even in the large-scale scenes, Knights of the Teutonic Order was a bit theatrical. It was said that Ford strove for historical accuracy, but when watching the movie, it is impossible to escape the notion that the axes were made of rubber, the costumes had only just come off the factory machines, and the sets were built out of Styrofoam. But in the 1950s, no one expected everything to look realistic on screen. Ford preferred to build his film as a chain of spectacular, emotional scenes. He was not interested in reconstructing the past, rather his mythologisation of it.

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'The Battle of Grunwald' by Jan Matejko, 1878, oil on canvas, 426 x 987 cm, photo: courtesy of the National Museum in Warsaw

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The director most certainly had in mind one of the chief paintings of the great Polish artist Jan Matejko, The Battle of Grunwald. It is worth recalling that this astounding multi-figured canvas is pure fantasy. The dozens of people portrayed in this painting clash against each other, like one wave overcoming another. Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytautas the Great, with a terrible face and wide-open eyes is at the very centre of the goings-on, looking straight at us, while next to him the Grand Master of the Order Ulrich von Jungingen is mortally wounded. The painting was a figurative expression of chaos, from which the nation of Poland was born. It is possible Ford decided to emulate Matejko’s vision on screen.

Battles old & new

Knights of the Teutonic Order comes across as a film about the victory of the sane over the crooked-minded, truth over lies, justice over the maleficent. Ford portrays the Teutonic Order as more than a monastic organisation. It is a system of pathology, a factory of death and slavery. The Teutonic Knights lie, conspire, deceive and abuse. They cannot be friends because their very organisation is built on a false premise. They maintain that they are battling with pagans, but their victims are Christians. They claim that they serve God, but they pillage and murder. While preaching austerity, they wallow in wild luxury.

And, undoubtedly, Ford isn’t forgetting that he is talking about Germans. When the knights before the battle shout to their Grand Master ‘Heil!’, we are not left with any illusions about who would become the successor to the order.

Ford’s colourful and rich film turned black-and-white in spirit. The ideology that Knights of the Teutonic Order aims to promote is immediately obvious. Yet this suited the audience at the time: the memory of the war and the German occupation was still fresh. With the war over and the enemy defeated, the hope that it is possible to build a new, peaceful and just life was universal.

Ashes by Andrzej Wajda - Image Gallery

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Knights of the Teutonic Order irritated Poland’s artistic intelligentsia. Several writers and film-makers openly said that the film was detrimental, overly emotional, and that it idealised the Polish people. Ashes by Andrzej Wajda was widely considered to be a response to Knights of the Teutonic Order. Wajda held a view opposite to that conveyed in Ford’s film. He believed that war should not be the foundation of a nation’s creation. War confuses, exacerbates and distorts everything. There is nothing heroic about it. Ashes is a film about how war incinerates even the noblest of people, that everything touched by war and the people of war turns to ash.

Ford’s fate seemed to prove Wajda right. It was not long after Knights of the Teutonic Order was released that Gomułka began to persecute the few remaining Jews in Poland. After being treated kindly by authorities and viewers, Ford would be forced to leave Poland forever. His films from abroad – one after the other – were met with failure. Feeling that he was not useful to anyone anymore and past his prime, a haggard Ford committed suicide in a Florida resort hotel in 1981.

The success of Knights of the Teutonic Order remains unsurpassed. Despite the straightforwardness of the film and the fair criticism it received, audiences needed such a film – simple and bright. Even now, Knights of the Teutonic Order dazzles and captivates. The era of Gomułka has long passed and the communist regime is no more, but the movie continues to be watched.

_{Originally written in Russian, translated by KA, May 2018}

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