MARSAL (1999)
(MARSHAL) (1999)
A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 2004
There are very few instances when films look like they were tailor-
made for their times. Last place where you could expect to see
something like that was Croatia in 1990s. Croatian films were
burdened with low budgets, censorship and, last but not least,
insufficient talents of their makers. MARSAL, 1999 comedy directed
by Vinko Bresan, was burdened with many of those problems, but
those flaws were compensated with the perfect sense of timing.
The story begins in the setting very much like the one used for
Bresan's previous box office hit KAKO JE POCEO RAT NA MOM
OTOKU. Small island off the Croatian Adriatic coast has been quiet
and uneventful place for a long time, but it isn't any more. Stipan
(played by Drazen Kuhn), a policeman who had grown up there,
comes from mainland to investigate some mysterious events. At first
nobody among the locals wants to tell him what is really going on
but he gradually learns that the island is being apparently haunted
by the spirit of Josip Broz Tito, legendary Communist leader of
former Yugoslavia. News begins to spread and island becomes
besieged by Tito's elderly supporters who want to see their beloved
Marshal. Luka (played by Ivo Gregurevic), island's anti-Communist
mayor and nouveau riche who had bought all the valuable real estate
at rock bottom prices, sees another opportunity for quick buck and
starts to transform island into theme park for Yugonostalgics. Old
Communists, led by former Party boss Marinko Cicin (played by Ilija
Ivezic), have other ideas - they don't believe in afterlife or ghosts; for
them the apparition is actually real flesh and blood Tito who
returned from the long exile in order to start another Communist
revolution. Situation on the island becomes tense while Stipan
desperately tries to solve the mystery and prevent escalation of
violence.
In Commmunist days Ivo Bresan, scriptwriter of this film, made a
reputation by challenging official dogmas. His son Vinko continued
the family tradition in his movies and challenged new, this time
Croatian nationalist, dogmas. He never did it as explicitly as in
MARSAL, though. This film gives very critical portrayal of post-
Communist Croatia, especially their anti-Communist leaders like
President Tudjman who nominally rejected Communism while
keeping much of its authoritarian legacy, including Tito-style
personality cult. In 1990s this comparison between the two leaders
required great deal of courage. Fortunately for its makers, MARSAL
appeared in Croatian cinemas just as President Tudjman was dying
and only couple of months before the elections that would remove
his party from power. This set of circumstances not only defused any
criticism, but also led many to believe that the film's finale, in which
historical icons sail into the history and leave ordinary people to deal
with ordinary issues, symbolised not only the new era for Croatian
film, but also the new era for Croatia as a whole.
Despite the happy ending of their film, father and son Bresan don't
seem to show much optimism for Croatia in the rest of MARSAL.
Small island and their inhabitants are the microcosm that shows three
major tendencies in Croatia, each harmful in their own ways. First is
the past, which poisons the new generations both with the memories
of relative prosperity of Communist era and with the chauvinist
myths of ancient national glory. The present is embodied in those
who used the fall of Communism as an excuse to abandon any
semblance of morality and whose greed brought ruin to the whole
country. The future isn't bright either, because it is embodied in
young generations who don't think of anything else other than
smoking pot.
Despite the bleakness of its vision, MARSAL is actually very
entertaining film. Many jokes in the film are very funny, although
some could be properly understood and appreciated only by those
who grew up in former Yugoslavia or were familiar with its recent
history. Unfortunately, Bresan still has to learn how to maintain
film's tempo - some of the jokes don't work, while some scenes are
almost painfully overlong. Some look like a cheap gimmick,
including introduction of two Croatian secret police agents who
resemble protagonists of THE X-FILES. On the other hand,
filmophiles are probably going to appreciate homage to THE
WICKER MAN and other classics of horror genre.
MARSAL, despite all of its flaws, shows that some serious and
depressing subjects can be dealt with in a entertaining way. Because
of that, it deserves recommendation despite not being as powerful as
it was in late 1999.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
Review written on August 24th 2004
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in
Croatian
http://www.ofcs.org - Online Film Critics Society
========== X-RAMR-ID: 38523 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1312883 X-RT-TitleID: 10004446 X-RT-AuthorID: 1307 X-RT-RatingText: 7/10
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews