Richard Brzostek - 11/17/2008 
"Enigma Secret" (Sekret Enigmy) takes us into the history and shows the adventures of a few Polish men whose story is not widely known. The Polish government enlisted its best civilian thinkers to help decode German messages. These mathematicians turn into war heroes as they decode the secret of the enigma.
This is a bit different war film. It lacks scenes of battles but is filled with espionage and a great deal of suspense because of the precarious time period. The story doesn't revolve around professional soldiers but of civilians that turn into cryptologists and help in the war. It stays away from the gritty details of the battlefields but shows us how the families were separated and torn apart, as everyone was affected by the war. "Enigma Secret" brings to life this time period and fills the two and a half hour film with a remarkable story.
The story is a chilling chronicle of World War II - from before it began to its tail end. Some parts of the movie will be unforgettable. I thought there is great build up in the impending doom just before the war breaks out. Their escape to France via Hungry will keep you on edge. Being just a few steps ahead of the Germans isn't an easy task and, unfortunately, their allies don't always help them. Overall, the way the story is presented doesn't show too much violence so it is one you can watch with the whole family. |
George Sax - 05/02/2008 
It would be a Polish joke of another sort entirely if the story Roman Wionczek's movie tells is factual. While some British and Americans have quietly been contesting the right to claim credit for breaking the German Enigma code during the Second World War (there's even a fanciful Matthew McConaughey movie); the Poles seem to have been harboring some resentment. This 1979 feature argues that it was three Polish mathematicians, working in the Polish Cipher Bureau, who first cracked the code, and then gave it to the British and Free French. The former may have built an improved code-reading machine at Blechley Park under Alan Turing's direction, but it was Poles who made this possible. Since it was a Polish diplomat, Jan Karski, who tried to warn the uninterested Churchill and Roosevelt about the unfolding Holocaust, this might be true, although the film could be more gripping. It plods some, in a neo-Socialist Realism way, and it has the least impressive Hitler impersonation I've ever seen. |
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