The hardest kind of film for me to review is one that I like a lot less than the consensus of other moviegoers and critics. I hate to rag on a work of art that a lot of others admire. For one thing, I don't want to discourage readers from checking out a film that a whole lot of people praise highly. This film is in that category for me, which is one reason that I've put off reviewing it for more than a year. I've read a lot of reviews and opinions about the film and a clear majority, perhaps 90%, of those reviews rate this film as one of the top European films they've ever seen. There's no question that it's a very skillful piece of work. The almost seamless integration of archival footage with new material is impressive. The allegorical quality of the film is extraordinary. What other fictional film have you seen that aptly sums up fifty years of a country's history while maintaining pace and narrative interest? The sets, particularly for the surreal cellar scenes, are magnificent and the performances are very good.

Still, we each have our own tastes and limitations. One of my limitations is that black humor works for me only within certain limits. When black humor is at the expense of characters that are evil and despicable, I enjoy it as much as the next person, but find that I just can't laugh at farcical treatment of serious problems pertaining to positive or innocent characters. To me, it's funny to watch an evil character being deceived, but not innocent ones. This film left me feeling something between sad and angry about the deception, repression and violence to which many of the principal characters were subjected because analogous events happened in real life to real people in the real Yugoslavia over and over again. Instead of lightening my negative feelings about such events, the comedic elements of the film rendered it distasteful to me.

Historical Background: A basic understanding of the history of Yugoslavia is prerequisite to an appreciation of the allegorical aspects of Underground. Back in 1929, King Alexander had abolished the constitution and began ruling as a dictator. His agenda was to forge unity out of a nation composed of diverse ethnic groups. He tried to force all of the people to speak the same language, created new political divisions that ignored traditional ethnic groupings, banned political parties and restricted the press. For his trouble, Croatian militants bumped him off in 1934. At the time, his son Peter was too young to rule, so Alexander's cousin Paul was chosen to rule until Peter would come of age. As World War II was beginning in 1939, Yugoslavia was thus in turmoil (which is the usual state of affairs for these unfortunate people). Paul wanted to maintain neutrality, but, under pressure from Germany, declared his nation aligned with the Axis powers in March of 1941. The Yugoslavian military revolted, however, overthrowing Paul's government and placing the 17-year-old Peter on the throne. Germany then invaded Yugoslavia, taking control in April of 1941, which is where Underground picks up. The Nazi occupation faced opposition from two resistance groups. The Partisans, led by Tito, wanted a Communist government following the war while the Chetniks, led by Mihailovic, supported King Peter. The two resistance groups fought one another as well as the occupying Nazis.

The Partisans gradually gained the upper hand and the support of the majority of the Yugoslavian people. With the help of the Allies, Belgrade was liberated in 1944. By the end of the war in Europe in May of 1945, Tito was firmly in control of Yugoslavia. His Communist government abolished political opposition, imprisoned or executed dissidents, and took control of businesses, farms, and factories. Under Tito, Yugoslavia steadfastly maintained its independence from the Soviet Union and Stalin after 1948, even turning to America and other Western democracies for aid. Though the Yugoslavian economy sputtered in the seventies and eighties, the Communist monopoly on power persisted until the late eighties. Around that same time, independence movements gained strength in Croatia and Slovenia and, later, in Bosnia and Macedonia. These Republics noted that the central government was dominated by the Serbian majority and felt that too much of their wealth was being taken from them. In 1991, Croatia and Slovenia announced plans to declare their independence, but some parts of those republics had significant concentrations of Serbs, who naturally wanted to remain part of Serbia. The result was the terrible outbreak of violence beginning in 1992 that most readers will remember from recent history and which ultimately brought about the collapse of Yugoslavia as a nation.

Certainly Emil Kusturica thoroughly understands the life and history of the various Slavic republics, though many people in the Balkans view this film as little more than pro-Serbian propaganda. Most Westerners view it as politically even-handed. Kusturica has lived in Sarajevo since 1986 and plays bass guitar for a Serbian rock band called Zabranjeno Pusenje ("No Smoking Orchestra"). Kusturica is known for his left-wing politics and the eccentricities of his own behavior, having more than once physically confronted conservative political leaders in public.

The Story: It's 1941 in Belgrade and Marko Dren, a poet, is celebrating with his friend Petar Popara (Lazar Ristovski), known as "Blackie," in a drunken revelry by motorcade through the streets of the city. Blackie, it seems, has just been inducted into the Communist Party. Consequently, Blackie arrives home late where is very pregnant wife, Vera (Mirjana Karanovic), greets him angrily.

Dawn breaks over Belgrade and Marko's brother, Ivan (Slavko Stimac), who is dim-witted and a stutterer, is already at work at the Belgrade Zoo, where he cleans cages and tends to the animals. Suddenly, German bombers pass overhead and all hell breaks loose. Some of the animals are killed by shrapnel or falling rubble, while others are soon seen wandering around the city. Ivan gathers one of the chimps, Sone (Charlie), and takes it home with him. Marko, who was at the brothel as the bombs began to fall, refuses to let something as trivial as an air raid deny him his satisfaction. Blackie heads off to find his mistress, Natalija (Mirjana Jakovic), a lead actress, leaving his wife to fend for herself, despite her pregnant condition. When Marko and Blackie are fingered as members of the resistance, it becomes necessary to evacuate their families to a safe haven – the expansive basement belonging to Marko's grandfather (Danilo 'Bata' Stojkovic). Marko's very pregnant wife goes into labor at the top of the basement stairs, collapses into a birthing position on the top step, then bounces on her fanny step by step down the stairs until she's a few steps from the bottom. There, she finishes giving birth, with the help of another woman, tells Ivan that she wants the child named "Jovan," and promptly dies.

Skip ahead three years. Belgrade is still in turmoil as Blackie celebrates the third birthday of his son, Jovan. Natalija has a crippled younger brother (Davor Dujmovic) to fend for and is therefore collaborating with the Nazis so that she can get the supplies her brother desperately needs. The German Commander Franz (Ernst Stötzner) has taken a profound interest in her. Blackie has double incentive to keep Franz from his mistress, since Franz is both a romantic rival and a political enemy. Blackie boldly kidnaps Natalija from the stage, posing as an actor, shoots one of the German officers, and escapes through the sewers. While Blackie is preparing to marry his mistress on a riverboat, his wedding plan is complicated, first, by Marko taking his own interest in Natalija and, second, by the arrival of Franz, with a platoon of German soldiers.

Marko makes his escape on the riverboat but Blackie is captured. He is subjected to grotesque torture. They apply so much voltage to his cranium that his skull begins to smolder. Marko disguises himself as a physician, "liberates" Natalija and her brother from a hospital, killing Franz in the process, and rescues Blackie. Blackie is taken to the cellar to recuperate. By now, the cellar dwellers have become a full-fledged, self-contained secret community. Marko puts them to work making weapons for the resistance and begins to plot how he can isolate Blackie in the cellar and keep Natalija all to himself. Blackie creates a ruse, convincing the cellar dwellers that they must remain hidden, with he, his grandfather, and Natalija as the only links to the world above ground. When World War II ends, Marko neglects to tell the cellar workers and periodically playing recordings of air raids on his phonograph to convince them that the fight goes on. By selling the weapons manufactured in the basement, Marko rises into a position of power in the Communist Party, as an advisor to Tito. Natalija, at his side, is decked out in fine furs.

Marko presides at a ceremonial unveiling of a statue dedicated to his old friend Blackie, whom everyone presumes to have died heroically during the war. A filmmaker approaches Marko about making a documentary about himself and Blackie and the resistance. Jovan (Srdjan Todorovic), meanwhile, has grown into a young man. Marko's deception almost comes apart when Marko and Natalija attend Jovan's wedding – in the cellar. It finally unravels completely when Blackie and Jovan secretly leave the cellar to undertake a raid on the Nazis, little realizing that the Nazis haven't been in Yugoslavia for over fifteen years. They encounter a Yugoslavia that they never imagined – with cars and telephones and other modern developments, but the same old bloodshed.

Themes: The obvious theme is the parallel between Yugoslavia as a nation and Kusturica's cellar community in the Underground. Tito maintained tight control over the media and thus controlled the information reaching the people of Yugoslavia, much as Marko uses that same power to control and exploit his cellar community. Before the rest of us get too self-righteous about our superiority here in the West, however, we might do well to remember how easily the America public has been manipulated recently by its President, through judicious release of misinformation, planting of innuendo, and perpetuation of falsehoods, to garner support for his military agenda. The old iron curtain countries kept their populaces ignorant by repressing free speech and freedom of the press, but wealthy democracies are learning that you can manipulate public opinion just as well through financial control of the airways and newspapers. More and more, in America, we see public information sources abandoning traditional principles of balanced and objective reporting in favor of promotion of particular political viewpoints. One needs look no further than FOX News for an obvious example. Here in Rhode Island, which has one of the most liberal voting records of any state in the nation, the State's largest newspaper is now owned by a Texan conservative and endorsed G.W. Bush for president. Congress recently relaxed the restrictions against a single owner controlling multiple media outlets in the same market, so we can expect increased control in the future over our information sources by America's moneyed interests.

The people of Yugoslavia come across in Underground as both heroic and idiotic – heroic in their capacity to fight courageously against outside enemies but idiotic in their capacity for internecine betrayal, exploitation, and bloodshed. Some reviewers praise the film for not being preachy, but there are issues at the core of this film about which serious points need to be made. Underground certainly doesn't hit you over the head with the horrors of endless bloodshed, exploitation of an entire nation of people, and suppression of freedoms (such as access to information), but it also doesn't say very much in a serious vein about these issues either. Where we ought to be incensed about conditions in Yugoslavia, we end up being amused by it. Meanwhile, three times in fifty years, the Slavic peoples have been sacrificed savagely, first by the Nazis, then by Tito's Communist dictatorship, and most recently by their own hatred for one another.

Production Values: The script is an interesting potpourri, combining drama, farce, war, documentary, and suspense into a coherent composite. It is fast-paced and vibrant, which a lot of viewers rave about, but for me it was too frenetic. The comedy, in particular, was too often over-the-top and ridiculous.

One of the highlights of this film is the set constructed for the cellar scenes. The production designer, Milijen Klajkovic, was the same creative genius responsible for the brilliant set of Jeunet and Caro's Delicatessen (1991). Like the set of Delicatessen, this other-worldly venue seems simultaneously bizarre and plausible, packed with ingenious gizmos and contraptions. The musical score is rather creative as well, featuring a recurrent brass band that meanders through various scenes in ways that seem integral to the plot.

I feel that the performances were outstanding if you buy into the film's concept. Not buying into the concept, I found the acting way too over-the-top, especially for the comic elements. Miki Manojlovic, who played Marko, is a very talented comedic actor, effective at physical humor as well as deadpan expressions. I enjoyed him as well in When Father Was Away on Business. He also appeared in Set Me Free (1999). Lazar Ristovski, who played Blackie, was very good as well. The two played off one another skillfully. The leading lady, Mirjana Jokovic, did a great job as a vamp as well as throwing a tantrum in the scene of the riverboat. Among the secondary characters, I especially enjoyed Davor Dujmovic as the crippled brother of Natalija.

Bottom-Line: Underground won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1995, the second one for Kusturica. His previous win was for When Father Was Away on Business in 1985. My personal favorite Kusturica film is neither of the winners at Cannes, but rather Time of the Gypsies (1988). My copy of Underground is VHS but there is a DVD version from New Yorker Films which reportedly offers an excellent anamorphic transfer with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, strong color and good clarity. The only extra on the DVD is a three-minute interview with Kusturica conducted in 1995 at the Cannes Film Festival. Underground is in Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles and has a running time of 167 minutes.


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You might want to check out these other excellent films from Yugoslavia:

Time of the Gypsies
When Father Was Away on Business

Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age