Customer Reviews

The Boys Of Paul Street [VHS]

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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Remember when you were a kid and you and your friends engaged in a mock war? Remember how, just like real war, it got out of hand all too quickly? Well, that's what happens to the pre-adolescent and early-adolescent boys in this modern Hungarian classic, one of the best movies you (probably) never heard of. I don't want to say much more about the plot, but the ending will rip your heart out. I can hardly imagine a more profoundly antiwar statement. Masterfully written, directed and acted by all involved. This film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, and quite possibly deserved to win. I am glad this great movie is now available on VHS, but would note that my copy seems to have been edited slightly differently from the version I remember from late-night TV. However, as one who almost always hates dubbing, I'm very glad this is a subtitled version. The reviewer below who remembers an English-language (dubbed?) version may be recalling a completely different movie, perhaps "No Greater Glory," an earlier film based on the same story. This enactment of the tale is directed by the great Zoltan Fabri, and it shows.

I have read this book at the age of 11, and fell in love with the story and the characters. It had such a profound effect on me that, after 25 years, watching it again, I was left an emotional wreck. As a child on the verge of becoming an adolescent, I had distinct images for the characters, and the movie depicts every single one of them perfectly; excellent casting, and acting and directing.

I saw this movie in the 1960's, at the Aero Theatre, on Montana Boulevard in Santa Monica. It made a lasting impression and I have wanted to see it again ever since. I could have sworn it was an English movie, but, upon buying this video, I wonder that my memory could be so poor (perhaps there was a dubbed version, once upon a time). This is a Hungarian movie with English sub-titles. From my youth, I remembered well the climactic battle between the rival gangs. It takes place in a wood yard used as a ball field by the "Saint Pal Street" gang and envied by the "Red Shirt" gang. A traitor from the Saint Pal Street gang cooperates with the Red Shirts, and the smallest and most humble of the Saint Pal Street boys gives everything to help win the battle. Great stuff!

The movie is a rather heavy-handed parable on the futility of war. Now that I am older, I appreciate it better than as a youth. While seeming to denounce war, it extols courage, sacrafice and nobility. Given the era during which it was made, it probably has some meaning to the propogandists of the soviet bloc, but, if it does, I fail to get it. Hawks and doves will be confounded in equal measure. I thought it was great.

Like Duncan, I too recall seeing a version in which British accents, not subtitles, came off the screen. This was one of the many great films I saw during my 3 year stint in Boys' Town, Nebraska in the early '70's. Since we all left the theater that Sunday night and proceeded to enact the battle against rival building inhabitants, it's questionable whether the administration should have let us impressionable "orphans" (Bob Dole's description)see it. I'm glad they did. It made a deep impression on me and I never did join any gangs, even after moving near South Central L.A. I gotta see it again now!