Wajda’s powerful evocation of the political struggles following the French Revolution as embodied by its two most fiery ideologues—Georges Danton and Maximilien Robespierre—has the visual trappings of a costume drama, is shot like a particularly elegant documentary, and is scored like a horror film. Although it is not historically accurate per se (the French critics had a heyday tearing it apart much like American journalists ripped into Oliver Stone’s JFK, both mistaking details for essence), it is a sharp and moving distillation of the nature of power and its role in mediating the will of the people. (DVD)