The Confrontation (1969) User Reviews

the real face of totalitarianism, with the lack of religious freedom

[igoncalves45 · 7/10 · 29 June 2008]

"Fényes szelek", or "The confrontation" (1968, better than 1969) is set in 1947-48. Everybody knows which party was at the Government in Hungary in those years (like in all Eastern Europe, by the way). And it is usual, in Jancsó's films, to pay attention at the historical contexts. We will see it here.

So, this is the plot: in those "wonderful" years, a group of young communists (yes, the party in the power) get into a religious high school or so, in order to convince the pupils about Communism. At the beginning, they try to be more or less fair with them. In this part of the film, there are perhaps too many folkloric Hungarian dances and songs, very loved by the filmmaker. The spectators may fear that "Fényes szelek" will be no more than propaganda.

But the quality of the movie increases since then. Because the film shows well how, in every revolutionary process, the most extremist leaders are those who command. So, the film shows the real face of totalitarianism, the abuse of power, lack of religious freedom, arbitrary acts...And all that was filmed under a Communist regime, for those who could understand it! It is true that the end of the film is not so courageous. The most extremist Communist girl is fired. So, there is a Party which is able to control the excesses of its worst members...

Nevertheless, one can understand that this is an interesting movie, better than expected if we have a look at the beginning of the plot and its promised "confrontation". It is also well made with long shots, always with that famous epic style of Jancsó, prone to action instead of words, and which tends to show movements of groups of people instead of "ideological debates".

The revolution is opium for the people

[thao · 8/10 · 9 March 2014]

"By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion."

So sings a Jew who survived WW2 because priests protected him. This Jew is a student in a Christian cluster in Hungary just after the communist revolution. A group of communist youths have climbed over the fence of the school to start a dialog with the students and try to turn them to communism.

This exorcise goes out of hand. A young revolutionary woman (Teri) suggests that they shave the heads of the priests and burn their books. This is when the Jew step forth and tells them that the priests saved his life and the lives of many other Jews and then he sings Psalm 137, the Psalm of exiles, written in the memory of slave Jews in Babylon. The psalm is very fitting here, not only because it reflects the horrors Jews had to go through in the Holocaust but also because Christians are experiencing the same thing at this moment in the film.

The use of the Psalm becomes even more interesting when leaders of the communist party turn against Laci and expel her and then asks her if she has any new songs and she starts singing Psalm 137. She has now taken the role of the oppressed.

The Confrontation is Miklós Jancsó's first film in color. It is a musical, set in the 40s but reflects the student revolutions of the 60s. The use of Psalm 137 in the film captures the heart of the story. People confront each other and turn on each other, believing they are getting anywhere but are in fact just playing cowboys and Indians while others (the Police) have the real power. Turning people against each other, changing oppressors and victims regularly keeps people busy. The revolution is opium for the people, just as religion.

Powerful film!

hungarian portrait of those sixties

[marcbanyai · 10 January 2004]

This is a very significant and specific hungarian portrait of the sixties as we know them, with their rebel youth, solid concepts worth fighting for, while times "they were a-changing". Highly recommended in order to know that hippies weren`t only american...