Lemonade Joe

Limonádový Joe
Directed by Oldřich Lipský
Produced by Jaroslav Jílovec
Written by Jiří Brdečka
Oldřich Lipský
Starring Karel Fiala,
Miloš Kopecký,
Květa Fialová,
Olga Schoberová
Music by Jan Rychlík
Distributed by Československý Státní Film (Allied Artists Pictures Corporation in USA.)
Release dates
 1964
Running time
 99 minutes
Country Czechoslovakia
Language Czech

Lemonade Joe, or the Horse Opera (Czech: Limonádový Joe aneb Koňská opera) is a 1964 Czechoslovak acid western comedy film, directed by Oldřich Lipský and written by Jiří Brdečka, based on his novel and stage play. The film, a musical parody of old-time Westerns,[1] enjoys a near-iconic status in the Czech Republic[2] as well as a considerable cult following,[3] and Henry Fonda was reportedly among its foreign admirers.[4] The film was selected as the Czechoslovakia entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 37th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.[5]

Plot

Satirising the American Western genre, Lemonade Joe is a clean-living gunfighter 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 color tinting and sped-up fight scenes, including the obligatory breaking banister.

"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. 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.

Cast

Production

Brdečka's Lemonade Joe short stories were written for magazines in the early 1940s. They were adapted as a stage play in 1946 and inspired the 1949 puppet film The Song of the Prairie, where the theme song appeared for the first time. Brdečka's experience as an animator made for several effects and ideas derived from animation being incorporated into the film.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Boček, Jaroslav (1965). Modern Czechoslovak Film. Prague: Artia.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Hames, Peter (2009). Czech and Slovak cinema: theme and tradition. Edinburgh University Press.
  3. ↑ Johnston, Rosie. "Lemonade Joe: soft-drink purveying cowboy and cult Czech figure".
  4. ↑ "The Montreal Gazette". 18 December 1965. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
  5. ↑ Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

External links