PSY (1992) A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 2000
Until recently, police films were supposed to be in the exclusive domain of cinematographies belonging to so-called First World. Ethical dilemmas that make the backbone of police films work only in environments that are supposed to have at least basic framework of democracy, rule of law and human rights. Naturally, East European countries during the Cold War didn't exactly fit such criteria and in their movie policemen in such films appeared only as protagonists in standard crime mysteries. So, we actually had to wait for the Communism to collapse to see East European films to deal with the problems that haunt their law enforcement personnel. One of such films is Polish drama PSY, directed in 1992 by Wladyslaw Pasikowski. The film was one of the most popular films in post-Communist Poland, spawning the sequel made two years later.
PSY is rather unusual police drama because the policemen are anything by ordinary. The protagonist is Franz Mauer (played by Boguslaw Linda), former veteran of Communist Secret Police. In the good old days he and his colleagues used to live like kings - the regime provided them with numerous privileges in exchange for their services. But times have changed and the regime is now made out of people who used to be Mauer's "clients". As a result, former secret police is now downsized and filled with people more suitable for new political masters - Maurer's best friend Olo (played by Marek Kondrat) is thrown out of the force, while Maurer himself is demoted to the regular police. Inability of the old secret policemen to handle new circumstances is revealed when routine car theft bust turns into bloody shootout in which most of Maurer's crew die. Maurer decides to find the responsible and takes help of young and idealistic rookie Nowy (played by Cezary Paura). The investigation leads to the well-organised ring of amphetamine smugglers, led by former secret policeman Gross (played by Janusz Gajdos). Maurer, being back-pedalled by his inimical and corrupt superiors, must not only fight this ring alone, but one of Gross' new recruits is his old friend Olo.
If PSY should be described with one word, that word is "brutal". That brutality is, of course, most visible in the large number of extremely violent scenes and naturalistic quality of said violence which would probably turn off some more sensitive segments of the audience. But the brutality doesn't stop at that level - in the eyes of screenwriter and director Pasikowski, naturalistic violence is just an expression of equally brutal everyday reality of post-Communist Poland. Pasikowski made this film three years after the collapse of Communism, and in that time the newly democratic country looked far away from reaching economic and political standards of Western Europe. The end of socialist economy brought unimaginable poverty to the people, and many were forced to turn to crime in order to survive; that later led to collapse of each and every ethical norm and many Poles were guided in their life by their most primordial and savage instincts. PSY is brutal even to the protagonist, who is presented as corrupt, primitive, violent and scruples individual who usually treats their fellow men like garbage. PSY is actually film without any positive character in usual Hollywood sense and this represents something like a problem for Pasikowski; since Maurer is not very different from the people he must fight, he must be given the girlfriend in order to show his kinder and gentler side. The subplot involving juvenile delinquent Angela (played by Agnieska Jaskolka) is rather routine and therefore needless; Linda and Jaskolka lack chemistry and during the scenes when they are together we can hardly wait for the film to start dealing with the real subject. In the end, the whole idea of making Maurer more humane is compromised in the brief scene that shows his enemy, Gross, as kind and warm family man.
Today, when Poland more or less managed to overcome most of the usual post- Communist difficulties, PSY is not as effective as it was eight years ago. Pasikowski's picture of Poland was simply too grim, and his speculations on near future were not proven to be correct. According to the experiences in most of post-Communist countries, former secret policemen, instead of organising their own all-powerful narco- Mafia, simply changed their masters and former members of Nomenklatura found much easier and less risky way for getting rich during the privatisation of former state-owned companies. Pasikowski was perhaps trying to hint some of those developments in the film, but PSY is simply too short for that. Another problem for this film is in references to the event in Polish Communist past, which are hardly understandable for anyone outside Poland (except perhaps viewers in other post-Communist countries, who can probably recognise similar characters and situations). Because of its brutality and rawness, PSY looks somewhat unrefined, but such flaws are overcome with superb acting and few scenes of black humour (especially visible in the otherwise extremely naturalistic police shootout scene). However, despite being far from perfect, PSY is memorable viewing experience for anyone who can handle it, and therefore it should be recommended for those who like to see how East European filmmakers react to their post-Communist reality.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
Review written on December 26th 2000
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax Fido: 2:381/100 E-mail: dragan.antulov@st.tel.hr E-mail: drax@purger.com E-mail: dragan.antulov@altbbs.fido.hr
Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in Croatian http://film.purger.com
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