Director
Jiri Menzel
Leading Actors/Actresses
Václav Neckár, Josef Somr
Supporting Actors/Actresses
Vlastimil Brodský, Jitka Scoffin
Genre
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Language
Czechoslovakian
Awards
Won Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Date of Release
1966
Producer
Zdenek Oves
Setting and Context
Czechoslovakia during German occupation in WWII
Narrator and Point of View
POV is that of Milos
Tone and Mood
Comedic, Dramatic
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist is Milos. Antagonist is Zednicek and Nazi Army
Major Conflict
Milos is unable to perform with Masa after premature ejaculation and attempts to kill himself.
Climax
Milos is saved and takes the place of Hubicka to plant a bomb on a Nazi train and dies in the process.
Foreshadowing
Great-grandfather and Grandfather's deaths foreshadow Milos' impending doom.
Understatement
N/A
Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques
N/A
Allusions
The film is an allusion to the life of a young man cut short by a war that makes young people do the work of men, and pay the ultimate price for it.
Paradox
Milos continues to say that he isn't able to be a man unless he performs. Paradoxically, his ability to perform causes him to take an even greater risk in planting the bomb which he loses his life for.
Parallelism
Milos' ancestor's doom is seen early in the film and it is paralleled with Milos' death at the end of the film.
