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The Good Soldier Svejk

1956 · 76 min

A wry, handcrafted puppet ramble through wartime foolishness, more charming than dramatic, rewarding patience with dry wit and gentle absurdity.

Directed by
Jiří Trnka
Genres
Comedy, Animation
Starring
Jan Werich
Overview
Adapting Jaroslav Hasek's raucous satirical novel, and also bringing Josef Lada's equally famous illustrations to garrulous puppet life, posed Trnka one of his biggest creative challenges. Trnka himself felt that the final episode was the most artistically successful, but there's much to enjoy in all three, not least the way that the lackadaisical layabout Svejk's own self-serving anecdotes are realized through cut-out animation.

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In the UKNo streaming, rental or purchase options known.
Directed by
Jiří Trnka
Genres
Comedy, Animation
Starring
Jan Werich
In your watch list

How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • satiricalstrength 3 of 3
  • absurdstrength 2 of 3
  • whimsicalstrength 2 of 3
  • warmstrength 1 of 3
Pacing
measured, 2 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • war
  • power
  • survival
  • class
  • rebellion
Places
  • military
  • countryside
  • small town
Era
period
Audience
adult
Form
  • animated
  • anthology
  • nonlinear
Content intensity
  • Gore none
  • Language mild
  • Violence mild
  • Sex mild
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action3
Horror1
Humour7
Realism4
Romance1
Tension3
Darkness4
Complexity5
Emotional weight4

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Where to watch in the UK

No UK streaming, rental or purchase options are known.

Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

Details

Genres
comedy, animation
Directed by
Jiří Trnka
Written by
Jiří Trnka
Starring
Jan Werich
Runtime
76 min
Country
Czechoslovakia
Languages
Czech

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