The Deluge (Potop) is a 1974 Polish film directed by Jerzy Hoffman, and an adaptation of Sienkiewicz Trilogy, tome two (also titled The Deluge).
It is set during the Second Northern War
, a multi-nation Eastern European conflict that lasted from 1655 to 1660. Andrzej Kmicic, a Hot-Blooded Polish nobleman, already distinguished as a commander, arrives in the town where his fiance lives, to meet her for the first time, since the marriage has been arranged by their respective grandfathers. Oleńka Billewiczówna, the beautiful and intelligent young noblewoman, is immediately smitten with the tall, handsome Andrzej, and it seems like theirs will be a love match.
However, external events interrupt the blooming romance. First, Andrzej's rambunctious officers get into a conflict with the nobles of a local village, which ends up getting the officers murdered, which leads to Andrzej burning the town, which leads to Oleńka forsaking him. It seems that they will be reunited when Andrzej joins the forces of Duke Janusz Radziwiłł, who is resisting the Swedish invasion of Poland, a cataclysmic event known to Poles as the Swedish Deluge. However, Duke Janusz is having plans of his own, and not very patriotic plans at that.
We are not worthy of kissing those tropes:
- Almost Dead Guy: Andrzej finds his men slaughtered by the outraged locals, with only Rekuts not quite dead yet. Rekuts is able to tell him who did it, and then dies.
- Arranged Marriage: Andrzej and Oleńka, as arranged by her grandfather, who has recently died. They never met before.
- As You Know: A Swedish officer tells his commander that it would be better if "the king Karl Gustav" entered Poland with his men, presumably so the audience knows that he's talking about king Charles X Gustav of Sweden.
- Audible Sharpness: There is a symphony of Audible Sharpness when an entire line of charging cavalry draws their sabres all at once during the big final battle.
- Battle in the Rain: Colonel Michał Wołodyjowski's men storm the house held by Andrzej's men in pouring rain. The battle ends with Michał and Andrzej duelling - and that duel also is a battle in the rain, possibly the most known in Polish cinematography.Wołodyjowski: Would you like to wait, sir, till the downpour stops?
Kmicic: It's all same to me.
Wołodyjowski: Shame to die in such a weather.
Kmicic: They will be burying a colonel, so the Heavens weep. Stand up, sir! - Bar Brawl: A big and plot-important one, as Andrzej's officers come on to some local women in a village, leading to the local men objecting, leading to a violent brawl that wrecks the tavern and gets several people killed.
- Blade-of-Grass Cut: The camera focuses tightly on a Swedish commander's hand as he grasps a stalk of wheat in a Polish field, in a shot that dramatizes both the natural beauty of Poland and how the Swedes are going to try and take it.
- Combat by Champion: Michał's men have defeated Andrzej's men, but Andrzej is locked up inside a cabin and he says that he has hostages and gunpowder. Rather than letting Andrzej set off his gunpowder and getting more people killed, Michał offers to let Andrzej come out and fight him in single combat. Michał wins, after which he manages to recruit Andrzej into the service of duke Janusz.
- Couldn't Find a Pen: Or rather, Couldn't Find Any Ink. In one of the more memorable scenes, Andrzej writes a letter in his own blood, first slashing open his forearm.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Andrzej not only makes the mistake of challenging the experienced and famous swordsman, colonel Michał Wołodyjowski, to a sabre duel, but also walks into the duel with Suicidal Overconfidence. Wołodyjowski spends the ensuing several minutes humiliating Kmicic in various ways, from firing a multi-layered insult his way, to spinning his sword mid-battle, to flinging Kmicic's sword off into the distance with a little flick. Kmicic is left to realize he's nothing more than a nuisance to Wołodyjowski and eventually just pleads with the colonel to Get It Over With to let him preserve some dignity.
- Dies Wide Open: All but one of Andrzej's men, when he finds them in a cabin, after they have been slaughtered by the vengeful local nobles.
- Dramatic Gun Cock: Duke Janusz sends his aide to bring Andrzej in, so that the duke can talk Andrzej into serving him and thus serving the Swedes. But just in case, the duke dramatically cocks a gun he keeps in his desk, just in case Andrzej doesn't agree.
- Dramatic Sit-Down: The same officer who made his way to duke Radziwiłł to report a field commander committing treason, sits down dramatically after finding out at the feast that the duke is also going to support the Swedes.
- Dramatic Thunder: Big dramatic thunder and lighting in the scene where duke Janusz screams "BOGUSŁAW!!!" as he realizes his nephew has definitely betrayed him. Then Janusz dies.
- Epic Movie: A four-hour, forty-seven minute epic about the Second Northern War, featuring grand battle scenes and thousands of extras.
- Flynning: Since Kmicic is no match for Wołodyjowski, the later keeps humiliating him by easily parrying all attacks, disarming him and in the process turning their fight into elaborate flynning. All the while being obviously bored. Eventually, Kmicic realises the only thing he can keep is what's left of his dignity, so he asks to be simply killed already.Kmicic: End this, sir, spare me the shame!
[Wołodyjowski instantly and effortlessly strikes Kmicic straight in the head, dropping him unconscious] - Helpless Window Death: Michał and the other officer who refused to support the duke are locked in a basement dungeon, but their men show up by the castle gates. Unfortunately, all Michał can do is look through the bars in horror as their men are wiped out by cavalry under Andrzej's command.
- Historical Domain Character: The two Radziwiłł dukes, Janusz and Bogusław, as well as king of Poland Jan II Kazimierz.
- Hot-Blooded: Andrzej is honorable and basically decent, but he's also impulsive. Very. When he finds out that his officers have been killed by nobles from the village of Wołmontowicze, he burns the whole town, which gets him into a lot of trouble.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Duke Janusz tells a horrified Andrzej that he, the duke, agreed to support Sweden because he simply doesn't have enough men to resist the invasion and that if he tried the Swedes would destroy the whole country, until "there wouldn't be a stone" remaining. He also says that he will turn on the Swedes once he has enough power to do so—once he is King of Poland. He's later revealed to be lying, in that he's perfectly happy for the Swedes to set him up as their vassal king in Poland.
- Karma Houdini: Arch-traitor and would-be rapist Bogusław Radziwiłł gets away. Andrzej has him at the sword-point after the final battle, but when Bogusław says that Oleńka will be killed if he is killed, Andrzej lets him escape. (The real Bogusław Radziwiłł died in exile in Prussia.)
- Les Collaborateurs: There are a lot of them in Poland. A Polish commander says "We are Sweden now" after a defeat, which outrages his officers. Even more shocking is when duke Janusz Radziwiłł invites all his noblemen to a feast and then, out of nowhere, raises his cup in a toast of allegiance to the king of Sweden. Then he has the outraged noblemen arrested when they try to leave the hall.
- Morton's Fork: Andrzej's predicament after duke Janusz reveals that he is supporting the Swedish invaders. Andrzej, who had sworn an oath on a cross to support the duke, realizes that he's damned either way, damned for betraying his oath if he supports the Polish resistance, and damned for betraying Poland if he supports the duke.
- Nature Adores a Virgin: Duke Bogusław, who in addition to being a traitor and collaborator is also a total creep, is fixated on Oleńka being a virgin and longs to deflower her.
- Nom de Guerre: Being a wanted (and really, really infamous) man, when he begins his Redemption Quest in earnest Kmicic uses the name Babinicz. Which leads to a dramatic reveal later on, as he declares his true identity after atoning for some of his sins and thus gains royalists' trust.
- Only Mostly Dead: Kmicic has the uncanny ability to survive grievous wounds (like catching a sabre with his forehead or being shot in the temple at point-blank range) that make everyone assume No One Could Survive That!
- P.O.V. Cam: With a dash of Snow Means Love, as Oleńka, being taken away in a carriage by Andrzej and his men after he arrives and claims her, looks up at the snow-covered trees.
- Re-Cut: A version called Potop Redivivus which cut over two hours from the original epic film was released in 2015.
- Reed Snorkel: Three of Michał's men do this when creeping under a bridge, which allows them to spring out and take the guard by surprise, which is then followed by Michał and his men storming the fort and taking Andrzej captive.
- Royal "We": Duke Janusz, who has ambitions to become king of Poland, uses this. The actual king of Poland uses the Royal "We", as well, but he has the right to it.
- The Siege: Andrzej is one of the defenders of the Jasna Góra Monastery from a Swedish siege. He proves instrumental to the Polish victory, too.
- Single-Minded Twins: Andrzej is staying with of one of his old veterans, Kiemlicz, at one point. Kiemlicz has two young sons who are identical twins that Speak in Unison and appear to be a single entity.
- Sissy Villain: The second Radziwiłł duke that Andrzej meets, Janusz's nephew Bogusław, also a traitor working with the Swedes, has a fancy curly wig, wears face powder, and plucks his eyebrows. Andrzej is startled. In a later scene Bogusław is shown lounging in bed and applying some kind of oil to his face while an underling gives him a briefing. He still easily overpowers and shoots Kmicic with his own pistol when Andrzej tries to kidnap the duke - and unlike in the novel, this comes out of the blue, much to Kmicic and audience's surprise.
- Smart People Play Chess: A Swedish envoy, dressed in fancy, frilly clothes and an elaborate wig, is seen playing chess in a clearing while his men struggle to free his ornate carriage from the mud. The envoy, who is obviously an intellectual type as opposed to all the rough soldiers running around, challenges a Polish collaborator to play and calls chess "a most political game."
- Spiteful Spit: Andrzej spits on Kulinowski while being tortured by him.
- Unreveal Angle: Andrzej and his men stop at a burnt-out farmhouse littered with the mangled corpses of dogs and horses. They go to the well to get water—and the men draw back, startled. Andrzej looks down the well, and they move on. The strong implication is that there are human corpses at the bottom of the well.
- You Fight Like a Cow: "You, sir, swing that like a flail!". Not just insulting his swordsmanship, but also comparing the nobleman Kmicic to a peasant. That burns.
