It was created in the euphoria of the early 90s based on the book of Miloslav Švandrlík (†77), his most successful. Although it belongs to the comedy genre, The Black Barons tell, with great exaggeration, rather sad stories about the “pétépács”, soldiers of the Auxiliary Technical Battalion (PTP). It was made up of young men who, for a number of reasons, were evaluated as class enemies of communism in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s. The film directed by Zdenko Sirové (†63), who himself served in the PTP construction units, premiered on June 4, 1992.
The conditions in the barracks of the shocked general were cut with humor by Václav Postránecký himself. | Bontonfilm
It is also a memory of the absurdities that the soldiers went through. “Tell me, Kefalín, what do you mean by the word absurd?” Major Haluška would probably respond to that performed by Pavel Landovský (†78), for whom the film was a great return to film after the unsuccessful bizarreness In the Heat of Royal Love (1990). But the film was also a great opportunity for Ondřej Vetchý (60) in the role of private Roman Kefalín and perhaps also for Miroslav Donutil (71), whose lieutenant Troník was unforgettable. Just like the ageless catchphrases and stellar cast of the film.
They pissed off the director
Director Sirový always remembered the filming with love. During normalization, he was among the banned and could devote himself almost exclusively to dubbing. As he admitted, he only got into trouble in the editing room, where he was forced to cut two hours of the film. “Finally, I dragged Toník Máša (†66, screenwriter, director, film manager) into the editing room, and he shortened the film to ninety minutes in a single day. I spat with rage around me, cursed him, but God bless you. Now the film has the right rhythm and at the same time nothing essential has been lost,” he said.
Watch a trailer from Black Barons:
Stars in every frame
The Black Barons can also be proud of the fact that small or large roles were played by real stars. In addition to those already mentioned, there are also Bronislav Poloczek (†72, captain Ořech), Jiří Schmitzer (72, lieutenant Hamáček), Josef Dvořák (80, lieutenant Pavel Mazurek), Václav Vydra (66, private and feudal Šternberk), Boris Rösner (†55 , private JUDr. Macháček), Michal Dlouhý (53, corporal Fišer), Josef Somr (88, innkeeper) and a long line of others. All of them had a great merit in the fact that the film was visited by 1,470,531 viewers in cinemas and earned an incredible 26,394,300 crowns for its time.
Vladimír Javorský came into his own as the politically aware but “weak on the chest” private Dušan Jasánek, editor of the Rudá vatra magazine. | Bontonfilm
As the barons used to say
• Major Haluška during the inspection of the cells and when he catches Private Jasánek with a bundle: “My God, they’re going to kill me.” – “Oh my God, it’s going to happen again.”
• Lieutenant Troník: “Do you think, comrades, that he survived? Well, he survived because it was politically important to him, you scumbags!”
• Major Haluška: “Why does Comrade Žižka only have a carved halúška in his hand? After all, he wasn’t just any bandmaster or parish priest. At least put a light machine gun in his hand!”
• Kefalín: “We were talking about a person, comrade lieutenant.” – Lieutenant Hamáček: “You can easily put these worries out of your mind, Kefalín, there are people in the world like pigs.”
• General: “What if you were attacked by a saboteur or an imperialist cutthroat?” – Private Macháček: “We would have come to an agreement somehow…”
• General: “Don’t we know each other from somewhere?” – Private Ciml: “Comrade General, Private Ciml. Hardly from a civilian. Unless we were sitting together on Pankrác.’
• Motto for raising barracks pigs: The plans of the revanchists will fail, our pigs will bleat.
Do you know that…: … Zdenek Sirový was planning to film a sequel to the Black Barons, but he died on May 24, 1995 during the film’s preparations? Sirový offered Švandrlík the role of general, but he refused and Václav Postránecký was filled.