Łódź, 19th century. Karol, a Pole; Moryc, a Jew; and Max, a German, decide to unite forces and build a textile factory, but they lack money. Karol works as a managing engineer under the ruthless Bucholz, owner of a taxtile factory. Karol also has an affair with Lucy Zucker, the wife of a rich tycoon, and through her reads in a letter that a 25 kopeks tariff on American cotton will be imposed in two weeks. Thanks to this advance knowledge, Karol, Moryc and Max quickly buy as much cheap cotton as possible, and secure a lot of money. However, it is not enough, so Moryc borrows money from a Jewish lender. Max is trying to persuade his father to invest into modernization of his dated textile factory with manual labor and no automated machines, but to no avail. The trio builds their factory, but since Karol had an affair with Lucy, her husband sets it on fire. Karol marries the rich Mada Muller, owns the factory, and orders the police to open fire on workers on strike.
Even though it was ranked as one of the best Polish films of the 20th century in a local film critics' poll, Andrzej Wajda's 3-hour drama about early industrialization and capitalism doesn't feel that fresh anymore today. Instead of enjoying in watching the movie, it feels more like homework. The major problem is that it is overlong, and that it isn't as interesting as it could have been. "The Promised Land" shows how the accumulation of wealth needed to start a business isn't that easy, and how the investors trying to finance their textile factory have to resort to unethical means, and later become as cold and distant from the workers as their bosses whom they initially despised, which kind of aligns with the socialist advocation for Poland during that time. Some of the dialogue is comical and witty. For instance, the main protagonist Karol enters the office of his cold boss, Bucholz, who gives him letters addressed to himself, to entertain Karol, who reads out loud one of them: "Most eminent Mr. President, emboldened by the fame and respect with which all the unhappy remember your name...". When Moryc wants to borrow money for his business, the Jewish money lender says this: "Why do I treat you like a son? What am I saying, like a son? Like a son and a daughter together!" In another sequence, the rich German industrialist Kessler belittles not only Karol, but the Polish nation, too: "First you must civilise, create an industrial culture. Only then will your attempts stop being laughable," and thus Karol replies with wit: "You are right and you are wrong. A pig, if it ever thought of an eagle, would think this way." The hyped orgy sequence, some 68 minutes into the film, today feels rather timid; whereas some unusual camera tricks are neat (the wide fisheye lens); yet the movie needed more of such eccentric, unusual and grotesque moments to become more entertaining, since such a long running time didn't justify its sole standard storyline.
Grade:++
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