Katyn. Katyn Forest was where 20,000 Polish officers and others were murdered by Soviets in 1940. This film, though it has some murder details, is mostly about the effects on the relatives and friends. The father of the director Andrzej Wajda was one of the victims, which helps to give this wonderful picture its lovely elegiac quality. (3/18/09)
12. That American warhorse Twelve Angry Men has been moved to Moscow and layered there with political meanings. The basic piece is still a patent mechanism, but the vigorous directing and the (to put it mildly) vivid acting make it enjoyable. (4/1/09)
Stanley Kauffmann is The New Republic's film critic.