Maratón

The creators of The Marathon apparently had a philosophy of giving us 2-in-1 when they offered two parallel stories from the last days of the war. Never mind that they didn't really fit together and both felt like they were directed by a different director and crew. The story of a young prisoner freed from prison, who manages to participate in the defense of Prague with a weapon during the four-day May uprising and find his fateful love, at least somewhat fits into the picture of Czech cinema of the 1960s, which relies on acting performances and the intimacy of the moment. The second storyline shows the victorious Soviet army "rushing to help Prague," and this storyline clearly has a propagandistic dimension and fits the face of the normalized cinema of the 1970s. Pathos, the tragedy of human sacrifice at the end of the war, the smiling faces of tired Soviet soldiers, and an endless column of military technology of the victorious army. It's transparent, and it doesn't offend me anymore because a film, no matter what it is, can at least humanize the face of the opponent and bring a smile to one's face in some scenes. On the other hand, this film definitely does not inspire any admiration from me. A great, or rather profound, film is something completely different and evokes different emotions. Overall impression: 50%. (25/02/2015)

I turn a blind eye to how polite and smiling all the Red Army men are here, because The Marathon is not about them. The couple Jaromír Hanzlík and Jana Brejchová are amazing - two young people who sweep through Prague streets full of revolutionaries, pulling a heavy suitcase, and the revolution is perceived by everyone in their own way. They are very nice to look at, they're determined, funny and scared. I trusted everything I saw. I also liked the second part of the film, the war with the tank columns, explosions, demolitions and firefights - the design is generous, the battles are decently shot and have the necessary atmosphere and familiar actors appear in them here and there, who sometimes get only a sentence (Svatopluk Beneš), other times two sentences (Bohuš Záhorský) and at other times a full role with everything (the fantastic Karel Höger and of course Vladimír Menšík). I certainly wouldn't think badly of The Marathon. (30/09/2017)