Throughout the Cold War, one of the great untold truths of World War II was Russian responsibility for the massacre of some 20,000 Polish officers and other "prisoners of war" in the Katyn forest. If Britain and the United States had tried to bring the Russians to justice, they believed it would have jeopardized the peace and revealed the real nature of Stalin's regime. Instead, both countries did their best to suppress the truth, even to the extent of espionage that included murder. Although this is a fictionalized version of these events, "The Last Witness" is also a realistic view of what journalists can and have done to bring the truth to light. This is a beautifully produced film, and it is difficult to understand what motivates some IMDB reviewers to dismiss it as "sucha a bad film." It is a wonderful and welcome film that follows half a century during which such a film could not have been made. It is also incentive to watch an arguably better film released in 2007 called "Katyn" and directed by Anrzej Wajda.

This film casts a very dour looking lead actor to play the main character. He gives the appearance of someone in need of a good wash! The story itself is not well told and the viewer has to fill in too many gaps. This decreases the level of viewer engagement and interest. It's fine as a history lesson but not that great of a dramatic production!

The film is based upon a true story, another one I never heard about. In England 1946, Stephen Underwood is a second rate reporter who likes his drink. He is also seeing a married woman. Upon investigating numerous suicides among Polish refugees he uncovers a vast conspiracy concerning the Russian massacre at Katyn being covered up by both the British and Americans.

The film was a slow moving historical. The colors were drab. The dialogue was stale. There were no shown action scenes and the "climax" was the credit role. It mildly held my interest.