Wajda makes something out of the literal ashes of Poland for his more somber tale of war compared to his first two films.

| Feb 28, 2023

Wajda feels the dilemma of post-war Poland and in Ashes and Diamonds, he advocates for neither the pre-war nobility that ran the country nor the Communist Party who picked up the reins once Germany surrendered.

| May 11, 2022

Ashes and Diamonds employs some striking imagery while relating its richly textured tale of a nation in turmoil.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 28, 2021

Starlike diamonds may form in time, but it's ashes in the chaos dragging us all toward the abyss until then.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 12, 2021

This honest film shows a greater degree of artistic and political freedom in Poland (at least in 1959) than we are led to expect.

| Feb 5, 2020

One has heard for some time that Wajda's Ashes and Diamonds is the masterpiece of the postwar Polish cinema and finally I've seen it. Not bad... Essentially a sophisticated thriller, with a class angle, of course.

| Jul 23, 2019

Complex, tender, agonising, it makes a country's moral dilemma as personal as love, and the pain of moral disillusion as immediate a torment as, say, disillusion in love.

| Jun 19, 2018

Honest, brutally powerful and often shocking.

| Mar 26, 2013

Richly composed and photographed, with atmosphere aplenty, Ashes and Diamonds suffers somewhat from an excess of loose plot ends and of underdeveloped characters, perhaps a consequence of having been based on a prestigious novel.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 26, 2013

Wajda's deeply romantic and personal vision, inspired by both Italian neo-realism and by the more baroque images of Expressionism, makes Ashes and Diamonds a gripping experience.

| Mar 26, 2013

When you watch Ashes And Diamonds, remember, you're not just seeing a film: you're looking at a manifesto that has found a voice and a face and speaks for a whole deceived generation.

| Mar 26, 2013

Only Wajda, though, could muster such a mood, with everyone feeding on smoke and booze, and the assembled company, at the end, dancing to a cracked polonaise.

| Mar 26, 2013

The final installment in Andrzej Wajda's war trilogy - following "A Generation" (1954) and "Kanal" (1956) - is a coolly romantic wartime movie about Maciek, a young Polish resistance fighter whose demise coincides with Germany's surrender.

| Original Score: A+ | Apr 11, 2009

Taut thriller about immediate postwar Poland also has a heavier theme of the futility of killing and violence. Its technical knowhow, fine acting and directorial prowess make this an above average drama.

| Mar 26, 2009

The third panel in Wajda WWII trilogy (that began with Generation and continued with Kanal) is considered one of his best works; it also shows why Cybulski was labeled the Polish James Dean.

| Original Score: A | Jul 19, 2007

This taut political thriller is a fine example of one of the first Polish New Wave films.

| Original Score: A- | Sep 24, 2006

Wajda's way is the sweet smell of excess, but some scenes remain powerfully memorable -- the lighting of drinks on the bar, the upturned Christ in a bombed church, and Cybulski's prolonged death agonies at the close.

| Jun 24, 2006

This great film by Andrzej Wajda is considered the greatest Polish film ever made, and I'm sure that's not too far off the mark.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 13, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 27, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 10, 2004