And Andrzej Wajda is a brilliant filmmaker who, in this, the culminating film of his great saga, has managed to produce a film of action, humor and irony that is at once a tribute and a critique.

Anna’s gaze roved over the tightly clustered zinc roofs glinting in the sunlight like fish scales on the beach or, Ted thought, pieces of armor left scattered on a battlefield. (Stairways. Small Spiral Notebook, Spring 2006.)