War Games and the Man Who Stopped Them – Gry Wojenne (2009)

Directed by: Dariusz Jablonski | 119 minutes | documentary

The story of spy Ryszard Kuklinski appeals to the imagination, not least because of the ethical questions that filmmaker Jablonski asks himself and the viewer. What would I have done in a similar situation? Would I jeopardize my safe family situation for the greater good? Also the interviewed CIA agents do not know the answer to these confrontational questions. Seeing the recently-turned-widow of Kuklinski, it’s sometimes hard to believe it’s all been worth it. The embittered woman had to endure a lot and saw both her husband and her two sons die within a year (the suggestion is cautiously made that it was no coincidence, although no definitive answer is given). At the same time, it’s hard to imagine what might have happened if Kuklinski hadn’t done what he did. If no one like him had ever risen, Europe as we know it might not have existed. In this perspective, there is no doubt about the benefits of Kuklinski’s actions.

How interesting the story of Kuklinski is from a historical and human point of view, so dry is a large part of the images shown. Dozens of very elderly men (and a single woman) interviewed in close-up – in dark offices, with doors and windows closed – simply do not form the most attractive images a filmmaker, however sincere, can create. Although the so-called talking heads add a lot to the story; even providing much of the information, they don’t make the movie any more exciting. Jablonski probably realized this himself and therefore decided to alternate the interviews with graphics from a fictional computer game, a kind of advanced digital Risk, with only two parties: the Warsaw Pact countries on the east side versus the NATO member states on the other. the West. A sultry woman’s voice tells how many armies are left on either side; the proportions and a huge map with 3D elements shows the possible strategic moves for both sides. These images offer an original change from the rest of the documentary and show in a confrontational way how the relationships were sharp and what could have happened. Still, they can’t quite save the film. Jablonski would have made a better choice and perhaps omitted some parts. Because in addition to the enormous amount of talking men, he also shows his own search for Kuklinski, which leads him through both Europe and the United States; Kuklinski’s years as a colonel; the beginning of his double life as a spy and later as an exile in the United States. In addition, Jablonski tries to explain the political and military game that was the Cold War as nuanced as possible, while also showing how relations have changed over the past twenty years. Especially in that last period, life must have been extremely painful for (the) Kuklinki family: exiled from their home country of Poland, where they were even sentenced to death (which was only lifted in 1998) and ‘imprisoned’ in a country that admittedly initially offered shelter, but did not want to get dirty by openly taking on the defense of Kuklinski: in short, an inglorious autumn in the life of a resistance hero.
The story is strong enough to linger in your mind, but unfortunately the film itself is not and that is exactly the difference between a great report and a really good documentary.