Szegénylegények (1966)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Miklós Jancsó

Writer:

Gyula Hernádi (writer)

Release Date:

6 January 1966 (Hungary)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

In Hungary, the national movement led by Kossuth has been crushed and the Austrian hegemony re-established...

Plot Keywords:

Magic Realism | Suppression | Prison | Outlaw | Monarchy

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

János Görbe	...	János Gajdar
Zoltán Latinovits	...	Imre Veszelka
Tibor Molnár	...	Kabai
Gábor Agárdi	...	Torma (as Agárdy Gábor)
András Kozák	...	Ifj. Kabai
Béla Barsi	...	Foglár
József Madaras	...	Magyardolmányos
János Koltai	...	Béla Varju
István Avar	...	Vallató I
Lajos Öze	...	Vallató II
Rudolf Somogyvári
Attila Nagy
Zoltán Basilides
György Bárdy		(as Bárdi György)
Zsigmond Fülöp

Also Known As:

The Hopeless Ones
The Poor Outlaws
The Round-Up

Runtime:

90 min | Hungary:95 min

Country:

Hungary

Language:

Hungarian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

MAFILM IV. Játékfilmstúdió

Trivia:

Voted as one of the "12 Best Hungarian Films 1948-1968" by Hungarian filmmakers and critics ("Budapest 12") in 1968 and then again as one of the "12 Best Hungarian Films" ("New Budapest 12") in 2000.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Fejezetek a film történetéböl: A magyar film 1957-1970 (#1.18)" (1990)

Ideological in a stylistic way

Life comes along at a variable pace, and we are constantly re-positioning our gaze to obtain the optimum information in order to understand the situation we are in. This is replicated in the cinema through the mise en scène and editing of the scenes. Since the 1930s there has been an either explicit or implicit debate as to whether editing within the scene is a good or bad thing, with Andre Bazin rooting for the unity of the image against montage (editing). Fifteen years before this film, Hitchcock set down a marker with 'Rope' (and to a lesser extent 'Under Capricorn') that scenes, indeed whole films can be made without much in the way of editing, by simply organising the action and camera movement to reveal the same information in a more continuous way.

Enter Miklos Jancso. With this film he became something of a celebrity in intellectually active film circles by structuring it to be shot in the main, in long takes. Does it work? Well, it works in one way, and that is that it draws attention to the Hungarian plains in which it was shot and which, during the numerous long slow pans that we see, seem to stretch forever across the landscape. Looking at it again after almost forty years, I find it difficult to believe that it made such a big kerfuffle. Long held takes DO enhance suspense - hence Hitchcock's temporary enthusiasm for them - but they seem artificial as they do not mimic the action of the eye, which is always on the lookout for something more interesting elsewhere (hence Hitchcock's enthusiasm being only temporary!).

The 'rounding-up' of prisoners that it portrays is an OK subject for a film, but I think we would have been much more emotionally involved with the characters if we had been treated to reaction shots and the like.

Still, see it as a theoretical/historical curiosity.