Another thing that sets the film apart from lesser works is that it was very cogent in its critiques of Soviet-dominated Poland, yet it still works today at a more personal level. As example, in its day, there was a direct stab at the supposed classlessness of a Communist society, for the married couple are obviously well off Party apparatchiks, replete with a fancy car, yacht, and apartment, who worry if their windshield wipers will be stolen if they leave their car for a day. They are stolen, at film’s end, but even such a worry says much for the dire state of things in the Soviet bloc.
The young hitchhiker is the common man, the young idealistic sort that totalitarian states despise, and a good deal of the tension between the men has to do not only with testosterone, but with class differences. But, it is the testosteronic tension that still resonates and carries the film today. Also, there is a Twilight Zone-like otherworldliness to this film that also resonates. After all, it’s a Sunday morning, there are many other boats docked in the marina, but only the three characters in the film are boating, as if they are occupying some usually unseen portion of an apocalyptic film’s world.
Knife In The Water is a quiet film, unlike showier Hollywood knockoffs, thus why it still works, and has not dated. It could be set in any part of the world over the last hundred or so years, for the setup is timeless, even if Polanski’s denouement is unique. If Andrzej wins, and the youth is really dead, there is the classic might makes right motif. If the youth dispatches Andrzej, then there is the classic father/son conflict. But if the film ends with all three surviving, and with the woman holding the upper hand in a conflicted state between the three, then the narrative has taken a turn toward realism and depth with strong claims to being great art.
Polanski makes all the right choices in this film. That all the action takes place in about a twenty-four hour period only heightens the intensity of the subtle gamesmanship on all three parties’ parts, and allows the narrative to be naturalistic, yet also classically dramatic. When one can get "the best of both worlds" to such a degree, one is accomplishing a lot, and Roman Polanski’s Knife In The Water does that and much more. Would more art supply the "much more" it often promises, works like this film would not surprise and delight the viewer to such a satisfying degree.
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Article comments
1 - Mat Brewster
Nice review. I watched this a couple of weeks ago and found it mesmerizing. I really loved all the tight shots inside the boat. Good stuff!
2 - bliffle
It's a fine movie. Available from Netflix, too.