Underground

1995 Emir Kusturica joint

Rating: 17/20

Plot: The story of Yugoslavia from the beginnings of World War II to the Cold War to the time when there's ain't no Yugoslavia no more. Marko and Blacky are underground weapons manufacturers, literally working subterraneanly. They also happen to be in love with the same actress. After the end of WWII, Marko fails to tell the inhabitants of his underground city that the war has ended, keeping them working hard on making guns and a tank while being completely cut off from the rest of the world.

I've had this movie on loan from the library (vhs) for over a year. The original due date was February 8, 2008. That's got to be a personal record. Like Kusturica's Black Cat, White Cat, this teeters on the edge of insanity and chaos, madcap and unhinged and unlike anything else out there. The social commentary is about as bleak as it can get (although the ending at least appears hopeful), but the surreal situations and slapstick lighten the load a lot. In fact, at almost three hours, this carnivalesque film is about as exciting as movies can get. I loved the off-kilter characters, and there's something that can be said for a movie that creates a guy like Marko who is doing some really evil things and still somehow manages to be hysterically funny. My favorite thing about the movie is maybe the soundtrack. It's hyperkinetic gypsy music but it's played by a band that just follows around the characters and relentlessly plays, most excitedly at the beginning while they follow Marko and Blacky's fleeing coach and during a wedding when they're crammed atop a wildly spinning pedestal. There's a density, and like a lot of movies that I wind up really really liking, I don't believe I've even scratched the surface after a first viewing. My complete lack of knowledge about Eastern European history probably doesn't help. Underground is powerful and entertaining stuff.