I Dutifully Report

This is the second half of Karel Stekly's two film adaptation of Svejk. The good soldier Josef Svejk of Jaroslav Hasek's novel is now on his way to the front and eventually in the firing line itself. The famous train sequences are here, along with the Budejovice anabasis, the cognac bought on the quiet, Svejk being taken for a Russian prisoner by mistake, and the court scene that follows. Rudolf Hrusinsky plays him in the uncertain space between stupidity and innocence, and the point is precisely that you never settle which it is. Made in 1958, it remains the best known screen version of the book. It shows the war not through big scenes but through the absurdity of the chain of command.