Silent Barricade (Nemá barikáda 1949) [1080p] Czechoslovak war movie with English subtitles
It's May 1945, Russians are approaching Berlin and the German troops in Prague are slowly beginning their retreat of the city while committing atrocities along the way. The situation escalates when a tram gets shot at by passing German cars and innocent citizens get killed.
The natives immediately decide to block off one of the main bridges, preventing the German's smooth escape. The entire city is suddenly organizing the defense. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry. Tempers have been seething for a long time and finally, all the bottled up anger can be released. The Praguers have a chance to pay back the occupants for nearly 6 years of terror and crimes.
As is typical for Czechoslovak movies filmed after 1948, also this flick is heavily tainted by Communist propaganda, which is significantly skewing the reality and making it historically inaccurate. The main protagonist, locksmith Hosek, is "of course" a member of the communist party and is receiving orders from a party official throughout the whole movie. He is an old battle-proven fox and everyone is heeding his advice and following his orders although he is presented just like a random guy from the street.
While there has been also a certain portion of communist resistance towards the Germans during the war, it has never been the main driving force as is presented in the movie. The resistance consisted of many factions and the communists were never spearheading it. Czechoslovakia was a democratic republic between 1918-1948 and communism has been imported and installed by Russia only first after World War II (The communist party was the 2nd biggest in the Czech and only the 3rd biggest in the Slovak parliament; Social Democrats and Democrats respectively were the biggest parties in both).
Back to the movie: We see a Polish young woman, Halina, which survived Auschwitz, liberated from one of the train transports joining the defense of the city. She is the most likable character of all as she is fearless and even kills one of the SS soldiers with a grenade, unflinchingly crossing the street under heavy fire as she is trying to retrieve a machine gun from his dead body. Even when some men refuse to join a group of combatants, she does not hesitate for a second and volunteers herself. She displays courage like so many other civilians guarding the barricades. When the situation looks dire and all seems lost, the Red Army finally appears to save the city from the clutches of the Nazis and bring long sought after relief and freedom.
This movie is dedicated to the heroes of the Prague resistance as well as to the soldiers of the Red Army which suffered immense casualties in the process of liberating Europe, not just Prague and Czechoslovakia, in World War II. (source: my own synopsis and review of the movie on IMDB)
Director: Otakar Vávra
Writers: Jan Drda (story), Jan Drda (screenplay)
Stars: Jaroslav Prucha, Barbara Drapinska, Jaroslav Marvan
Links:
www.imdb.com/title/tt0175953/
czechmovie.com/products/silen...
www.amazon.com/barikada-Silen...
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