I can only add my voice to the other reviewers, asking why such a masterpiece, voted the best Czech film of all time, is not available on DVD or VHS, especially since two of the director's lesser films did make it to VHS. Another Vlacil film (just as unique in its own way) that is not available is The White Dove. Marketa Lazarova is very realistic in detail (as other reviewers have remarked), but (unlike some recent American and British films set in the Middle Ages) it does not make a fetish of the dirt and squalor. The cruelty is also shown in the context of a harsh world, where revenge and displays of power were necessary to maintain one's position. And it goes with the sardonic humor of the film. The only knight in shining armor, for instance, is an ineffectual status symbol. But the film also portrays a conflict in which both sides have their virtues: the bonds of family affection and loyalty in the outlaw clan, which come out in the father's final scene with his dying son; and the king's effort to maintain some semblance of order that will allow ordinary people to live their lives. By contrast, most American and British medieval epics are fantasies, featuring a struggle between stereotyped good versus evil characters.
Review of Marketa Lazarová
