What the World’s Watching

“The End of Action”--that’s the title of a recently published article in the Polish arts magazine Machina.

The author of the story, Andrzej Zwaniecki, writes that contrary to popular opinion, Poles do not love the heroes of action films. With the exception of “Armageddon,” no action film in the last decade could be considered a blockbuster here.

“We distributed three films with Jean-Claude Van Damme--the latest one being ‘Double Team’ with Dennis Rodman, and it was mildly successful,” said Levis Minford, general manager of Syrena Entertainment, a major film-distribution company in Warsaw. “But there was a large draw for Rodman, and also there was less violence there than in the other Van Damme movies.”

Still, the company, which was quite successful last year with “Armageddon,” plans to distribute Van Damme’s “Universal Soldier II” in the fall.

After the collapse of communism here in 1989 and the opening of borders, there was a great appetite in Poland for everything coming from the West, including American action films.

But this is slowly changing. In 1998, the biggest hits here included “Titanic,” with 3.5 million viewers, and “Armageddon,” with about a million Poles buying tickets to see it. But a different trend appears to be emerging in 1999. Poles want to see quality Polish films, such as the historical drama “With Fire and Sword” (almost 7 million viewers), and the crime comedy “Kiler”(more than 2 million viewers).

Juliusz Machulski, the director of the hugely successful “Kiler” and its sequel, “Kiler 2,” thinks that if kids watch violent action films, it’s because that’s what Hollywood puts out for foreign distribution. Machulski believes that his films were so successful because there was no killing in them.

“I think that Polish viewers got tired of action films,” he said. “The film market is over-saturated by thoughtless killings and shootings. Even here we have cases where someone takes a gun or commits some crime and says: ‘It was just like in the movies.’ ”