Product Details

• Actors: Vlastimil Brodský, Vera Ferbasová, Tereza Galiová, Rudolf Hrusínský, Eugen Jegorov
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Subtitles: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Fox Lorber
• VHS Release Date: October 13, 1997
• Run Time: 96 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302229901
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #295,122 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life in the 1950's Czechoslovakia -- turning people into nameless mass, August 7, 2011

By 

Jaroslav Melgr "jaroski" (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Larks on a String [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This movie is an absolute gem! It was made in 1969, after the Soviet invasion of August 21, 1968. The production team worked very hard to finish the movie knowing they had a very small window of opportunity to make this movie before the censors got a hold of them. Partly as an act of defiance, they pushed through and completed the film, only to have it locked up in the safe by the authorities. Thus the movie was first released for public consumption 20 years later, after the Velvet Revolution of 1989.

This is a story of a group of workers at a steel mill in Kladno. All but one of these workers have been "assigned" to work there for their transgressions against the people. The young hero was a naive cook who refused to work on Sundays for religious reasons. Another fellow was a former attorney who refused to recognized that defense is part of the prosecution in the new legal system of communist Czechoslovakia. A small business owner was reassigned to worked there because he exploited the people by employing three individuals in his business. And so on.

The one who worked there voluntarily was the former milkman who wanted to help the good cause of building the socialistic republic. So he heeded the call of the Communist Party leadership and volunteered. But this was a time when hype far outstretched reason and it was all about breaking records. It worked like this, someone at the party headquarters would approved a new daily work quota and the workers had to comply -- so much for being rescued from exploitations of capitalist. However, unlike the capitalists, the communists had no clue how to run companies so while the daily, weekly and monthly production numbers went through the roof, the quality of steel went the opposite direction. And in fact, most of the production (steel ingots) were so shabby that they went right back to being melted again. This is more than symbolic as the workers' political supervisor often reminds his "corrupt appointees" of their purpose for being at the steel factory is to be reformed: "you're like this rusty metal, but we will remelt you and recast you and make noble steel out of you."

As much as communism tried to dehumanize the individual and turn them into a nameless mass, this movie does a beautiful job of focusing on the individual. The mix of characters is rather varied, but they are all down to earth people, a lawyer and a cook alike in the sea of metal scrap, loading gondolas heading for the foundry. And in the end it is these people who are able to enjoy the simple things in life that are left for them to enjoy who win and transcend the rather unpleasant predicament that befell them.

This is simply a terrific movie, you won't find many like this. I highly recommend it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Banned for 20 years in its native Czechoslovakia, December 29, 2010

By 

Pavel Cerny "Oscar in Hollywood" (CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Larks on a String [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Since I worked as an Assistant Director on this film I have a special relationship to it. The political implications of the story of middle class Czech intellectual being forced to work in a steel mill while the uneducated Communist officials supervise "bringing hygiene to adolescent gypsy girls" may be a bit difficult to understand to US audiences, but Jiri (Closely Watched Trains) Menzel's overriding lyricism and humor are easy to comprehend and admire. This film, shot in 1971, was banned till 1990, when it won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Festival, right after the fall of the Iron Curtain. I am looking forward to someone in the US to finally release it on DVD.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most bitter-sweet film of the Communist era, January 11, 2005

By 

S. Laza - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Larks on a String [VHS] (VHS Tape)

If you are from the former "socialist" countries, you will understand the film.

If you are from the "capitalist" part of the world, you might be able to understand some aspect of the life on the other side of the iron curtain.

It is a wanderful, bitter-sweet story of lifes...