Their rivalry unfolds against the backdrop of a Cossack uprising led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky, aimed at reclaiming control of the land from the hands of the Polish nobles.

The movie suggests that the Poles were quickly routed by Cossacks and the Polish elite cavalry (husaria) showed needless bravado in the face of unfavorable weather conditions.

In reality, the Poles not only were greatly outnumbered, especially after they had been deserted by all of the Cossacks, who had switched sides and joined Bohdan Khmelnytsky, but also had a young commander, Stefan Potocki, who was only 24 years old.

[7] However, some Polish reviewers felt that the movie emphasized the Cossacks' successes and positive traits but diminished those of the Poles in the spirit of political correctness.

I understand that problem, but when I was in Kiev at a conference of Ukrainian intellectuals... many people with whom I spoke had read the novel closely and they quoted whole passages where Sienkiewicz criticized the Polish nobles as strongly as the Cossacks.