Lemonade Joe
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| Limonádový Joe | |
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| Directed by | Oldřich Lipský |
| Produced by | Jaroslav Jílovec |
| Written by | Jiří Brdečka Oldřich Lipský |
| Starring | Karel Fiala, Miloš Kopecký, Květa Fialová, Olga Schoberová |
| Distributed by | Československý Státní Film (Allied Artists Pictures Corporation in USA.) |
| Release date(s) | 1964 |
| Running time | 99 min. |
| Language | Czech |
| IMDb profile | |
Lemonade Joe (pronounce /jɔɛ/), complete name in Czech Limonádový Joe aneb Koňská opera, is a Czechoslovakian film from 1964, directed by Oldřich Lipský and written by Jiří Brdečka, based on his own novel and theatre play. It is an example of Czech surrealism. The film became a cult classic in Czechoslovakia, and apparently Henry Fonda was amongst its foreign admirers.
[edit] Plot
Satirising the American Western genre, Lemonade Joe is the clean living gun fighter who drinks only Kolaloka lemonade and takes on a town full of whiskey drinking cowboys. It is a musical comedy parodying the old silent westerns, with colour tinting, speeded up fight scenes including the obligatory breaking bannister.
'What's good for Kolaloka is good for the law!' says one of the characters, and by the end of the film both villains and heroes learn to work together for the sake of business-- i.e. the Kolaloka company, whose name is obviously based on Coca Cola. As the film progresses, it becomes clearer that Joe doesn't just clean up the town for morality's sake, but because he wants whiskey out of the way.
One of the subplots involves the arrival of an evangelist in the town, with his daughter. Although the evangelist doesn't seem to be working purely for financial motives, he is both contrasted and likened to Joe in his techniques.
The film's main theme is the continuing controversy of interconnection of big business and government in society. While some would see this as necessary, and good, others think the opposite, hence the film's opinions on large scale American marketing campaigns, such as Coca Cola's, are embodied in Joe's ambiguity as a character... is he an all American hero, or just a shameless shill and coward? Likewise Joe's love interests are torn between the dark haired beauty who works in the bawdy-house, and the clean living blonde evangelist's daughter. Initially he is more interested in the latter, especially as she is involved in a temperance campaign which would be good for his Kolaloka franchise business.
