Lemonade Joe
Limonádový Joe | |
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Allied Artists Pictures Corporation (US release) | |
Release dates |
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Running time | 99 minutes |
Country | Czechoslovakia |
Language | Czech |
Lemonade Joe, or the Horse Opera (Czech: Limonádový Joe aneb Koňská opera) is a 1964 Czechoslovak musical comedy film, directed by Oldřich Lipský and written by Jiří Brdečka, based on his novel and stage play.
A parody of the American
Plot
In the frontier town of Stetson City,
Doug Badman's business is saved by the arrival of his brother Horace, alias "Hogofogo, the Master Criminal of the Wild West". In a dramatic public appearance, Hogofogo convinces the Kolaloka customers to go back to Trigger Whisky, and soon the old saloon is back in business ("Whisky to je moje gusto"). Joe, unaware of the developments, is riding on the prairie ("Sou fár tů jů áj méj") until, thanks to a
Joe returns to Trigger Whisky Saloon, where, in another display of fighting skill, he wins the customers back to Kolaloka once again ("Můj bóže, můj bóže"). Hogofogo, in disguise, attempts to shoot Joe, but Joe instead engages him in a gunfighting chase through the town, trying to force him into signing a
Hogofogo tracks Winnifred down to the Stetson City cemetery, where he attempts once again to kidnap her. When the now-moral Tornado Lou stops him, he kills her; in revenge, Doug Badman kills Hogofogo, and in his death throes, Hogofogo kills Doug. Just as he is about to shoot Winnifred, Lemonade Joe enters alive and well; surveying the three dead bodies, he notices their birthmarks and discovers that they are his long-lost siblings. He revives them with the same medicine that has just brought him back to life: the miraculous soft drink Kolaloka. Joe's father—none other than Mr. Kolalok himself, owner of Kolalok & Son—enters just in time for a happy ending, in which villains and heroes alike agree to work together and merge their businesses to create a new drink, Whiskola. The entire Kolalok family, including the newly married Winnifred and Joe, ride off into the sunset in a stagecoach as the population of Stetson City cheer.
Cast
- Karel Fiala as Lemonade Joe, salesman for Kolalok & Son
- Rudolf Deyl Jr. as Doug Badman, owner of Trigger Whisky Saloon
- Miloš Kopecký as Horace Badman, alias "Hogofogo"
- Květa Fialová as Tornado Lou, the Arizona Warbler
- Olga Schoberová as Winnifred Goodman
- Bohuš Záhorský as Ezra Goodman, Winnifred's father
- Josef Hlinomaz as Gunslinger Grimpo
- Karel Effa as Pancho Kid, gunslinger
- Waldemar Matuška as Coyotte Kid, gunslinger
- Eman Fialaas Pianist
- Vladimír Menšík as Barman #1
- Jiří Lír as Barman #2
- Jiří Steimar as Mr. Kolalok, Joe's Father
Themes
Lemonade Joe is, most prominently, a parody of clichés found in American Westerns.[1] In addition, it includes a running satire of American capitalism and cultural imperialism—values embodied by the soft drink Kolaloka, the name of which is a clear parody of Coca-Cola.[2] (In the earliest version of the Lemonade Joe stories, the drink was called Kolakoka, an even more unambiguous reference.)[3] However, it is highly ambiguous whether the satire is intended as a serious critique of the capitalist system;[4] indeed, values officially promoted in Eastern European countries of the time are implicitly satirized as well, with the plot culminating in a reconciliation and compromise between the two.[5] The film's screenwriter, Jiří Brdečka, wrote that his main satiric target was the undertone of commercialism running through classic American westerns,[6] explaining that the satire:
...was not addressed to the myth (that is myth of the West) but rather to the abuse of this myth. Hypocritically moral gunman, ensuring his popularity by consumption of lemonade – that is an illustration of business with a myth.[7]
Numerous scholars have commented on the film's multiple layers of thematic parody. The historian Peter Bischoff suggested that, while the film seems to parody the American
Production
Sources
Stories about the
Jiří Brdečka, a prolific Czech screenwriter and satirist,[13] created the Lemonade Joe character in a 1940 serial,[14] a parody of dime novels commissioned by the popular magazine Ahoj na neděli. As the serial progressed, however, the target of the satire shifted from dime novels to Western epics;[15] Brdečka was a self-professed fan of Westerns, citing Stagecoach, Wells Fargo (1937), and Frontier Marshal (1939) as the films that sparked his interest in the genre.[16] Brdečka also wrote a nonfiction work about the American frontier, Kolty bez pozlátka (1956), de-mythologizing the iconic Western figures of Wild Bill Hickok, Billy the Kid, and Jesse James.[17]
The Lemonade Joe stories were adapted as a stage play in 1946,
Filming
The Stetson City facades were built at the Czech film studios at
In creating a filming style, director
The film includes specific parodic tributes to
Music
The film's
Release and reception
Lemonade Joe was released in
Czech critical reactions were mostly positive, although several critics, such as Otakar Váňa, felt that the second half was too slow-moving and too sharp in its political satire. Some reviews expressed disappointment that the film's parodic content would largely be lost on Czechoslovak audiences, since American Westerns were rarely screened.[7]
The film enjoys a near-iconic status in the Czech Republic
Legacy
In the mid-1980s, when Mikhail Gorbachev introduced measures to limit Soviet alcohol consumption, critics nicknamed him "Lemonade Joe" in a nod to the film.[27]
Bulgarian middle-distance runner Atanas Atanasov was nicknamed "Joko" throughout his career, derived from combining his Bulgarian name with the "Lemonade Joe" protagonist. The nickname also extended to his son, long jumper Nikolay Atanasov.[28]
See also
- Ostern/Red Western
- Revisionist Western
- Acid Western
- List of submissions to the 37th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
- List of Czechoslovakia submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Notes
References
- ^ Mléčková 2006, p. 5.
- ^ Miller 2014, p. 116.
- ^ a b Mléčková 2006, p. 51.
- ^ Mléčková 2006, p. 55.
- ^ Miller 2014, p. 118.
- ^ Mléčková 2006, p. 58.
- ^ a b c Mléčková 2006, p. 59.
- ^ a b c Miller 2014, p. 114.
- ^ Imre 2009, p. 89.
- ^ a b c d e f g Hames 2002.
- ^ a b Miller 2014, p. 104.
- ^ Miller 2014, p. 105.
- ^ Hemelíková 2007.
- ^ Miller 2014, p. 115.
- ^ Mléčková 2006, p. 41.
- ^ Mléčková 2006, p. 37.
- ^ Mléčková 2006, p. 38.
- ^ a b c Johnston 2008.
- ^ Mléčková 2006, p. 39.
- ^ Imre 2009, p. 86.
- ^ Mléčková 2006, p. 44.
- ^ Miller 2014, p. 106.
- ^ Mléčková 2006, p. 49.
- ^ Figueredo 2015, p. 2.
- ^ "The Montreal Gazette". 18 December 1965. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
- ^ Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
- ^ Eaton 1985.
- ^ Краси Панов (20 March 2009). "Джоко - В трапа за скок дължина с китара в ръка". IAMPP ATHLETICS NEWS. Archived from the original on 20 March 2009. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
Citations
- Eaton, William J. (26 October 1985), "'Lemonade Joe's' Crackdown: Soviet Anti-Alcohol Drive Changing Nation's Habits", Los Angeles Times, retrieved 13 July 2015
- Figueredo, D. H. (2015), Revolvers and Pistolas, Vaqueros and Caballeros: Debunking the Old West, Santa Monica: Praeger, ISBN 9781440829192
- Hames, Peter (7 October 2002), "Way out west: Oldřich Lipský's Limonádovy Joe aneb koňská opera (Lemonade Joe, 1964)", Kinoeye, 2 (5), retrieved 13 July 2015
- Hemelíková, Blanka (2007), "Jiří Brdečka", Slovník české literatury po roce 1945, Ústav pro českou literaturu, retrieved 14 July 2015
- Imre, Anikó (2009), Identity Games: Globalization and the Transformation of Media Cultures in the New Europe, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, ISBN 9780262090452
- Johnston, Rosie (20 March 2008), "Lemonade Joe: soft-drink purveying cowboy and cult Czech figure", Radio Prague, retrieved 13 July 2015
- Miller, Cynthia J. (2014), "Comedy, Capitalism, and Kolaloka: Adapting the American West in Lemonade Joe", in Miller, Cynthia J.; Van Riper, A. Bowdoin (eds.), International Westerns: Re-Locating the Frontier, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, pp. 104–120, ISBN 9780810892880
- Mléčková, Kateřina (2006), Western Goes East: Limonádový Joe and its possible interpretations (PDF) (thesis), Masaryk University
External links
- Lemonade Joe at IMDb