Description
The Black Battalion / Cerny prapor DVD
Synopsis
Under the banner of the Foreign Legion, Václav Malý (J. Mareš) finds only pain, dirt, and shadows of the past... A young man from Plzeň, he enlisted in the French Foreign Legion and was deployed to fight in the impenetrable jungles of Vietnam against local guerrillas. In his new unit, he quickly befriends a fellow countryman and the squad's corporal, Petr (F. Peterka), who takes the newcomer under his wing and plans to escape with other legionnaires soon. As Václav embarks on his first expedition into the jungle, he witnesses the horrors of war perpetrated by the legionnaires and begins to completely reassess his beliefs... This film, directed by Vladimír Čech in 1958 based on a screenplay by Miloslav Fábera and Kamil Pixy, was one of the few adventurous and action-packed movies available in Czech cinemas at the time, attracting over two million viewers. It is also a rare Czech film addressing the war in Indochina (1946–1954) between Vietnamese guerrillas and French forces. It directly responded to the numerous groups of amnestied Czechoslovak returnees from the French legions in the 1950s – among them was Ervín Páleš, who served as the prototype of the main character and acted as a consultant for the film. However, the filming did not take place in real Asian locations, as it might seem at first glance, but on Žitný ostrov in southwest Slovakia, where, for example, the Czech film Picnic (1967) about American soldiers during the Pacific War was also shot. The production also took into account the diverse composition of soldiers in the legions – whether they were French, Polish, German, or British – which subsequently resulted in an unprecedented international cast.
Product Details DVD
Length 85 min.
Production Year 1958
Audio Czech
Subtitles English, Czech
Format DVD (PAL)
Region All
Director Vladimir Cech
Cast Jaroslav Mares, Frantisek Peterka, Gunther Simon, Tadeusz Schmidt, Kurt Oligmuller, Hannjo Hasse, Jerzy Duszynski, Karel Jelinek, Ladislav Chudik, Marie Brozova
Also Known As:
Argentina - El batallón negro
East Germany - Das schwarze Bataillon
Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title) - To mavro tagma
Hungary - Fekete zászlóalj
Italy - Battaglione nero
USA - The Black Battalion
West Germany - Das Bataillon des Teufels
Czech - Černý prapor
Note for US customers: It might not play on some US DVD players, Multi-Region and Multisystem PAL/NTSC DVD player is required, Please check your DVD player