Limonádový Joe aneb Konská Opera [Lemonade Joe, or the Horse Opera]
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“What was before my eyes was both familiar and eerily strange.”–Danilo H. Figueredo, in Revolvers and Pistolas, Vaqueros and Caballeros: Debunking the Old West, on the experience of seeing Lemonade Joe in Cuba
DIRECTED BY: Oldrich Lipský
FEATURING: Karel Fiala, Olga Schoberová, Rudolf Deyl, Miloš Kopecký, Kveta Fialová
PLOT: A lemonade-drinking cowboy rescues a beautiful temperance worker from rowdies in a tavern. Impressed with his heroism and trick shooting, the town opens an all-lemonade saloon, which upsets the local whiskey barons. With the help of a prostitute Joe has scorned, they scheme to kill the teetotalling hero and make Stetson City safe for intoxicating spirits once more.
BACKGROUND:
- The word “limonádový” actually translates to “soft drink,” not “lemonade,” but there can be no doubt Lemonade Joe has a better ring to it than Soft Drink Joe.
- The Lemonade Joe character began his life in a series of stories by satirist Jiří Brdečka. The stories were then adapted into a 1946 play, a short series of animated shorts, and finally into this hit movie.
- Co-screenwriter/director Oldrich Lipský was the artistic director of Prague’s Satirical Theater. He went on to direct several popular and critically successful films, including Happy End (a 1966 experimental film that plays backwards) and Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians (1981).
- Although the Western had been a popular genre in Czechoslovakia in the early part of the 20th Century, largely due to the writings of German pulp author Karl May, Western films had been banned through the German and Soviet occupations. They only began to be screened again (and then rarely) in the 1960s.
- Czechoslovakia submitted Lemonade Joe to the Academy Awards, but it was not selected for the Best Foreign Language Film competition.
- This movie was a huge hit in its home country—the biggest-drawing film of the 1960s—and remains a cult movie there to this day.
INDELIBLE IMAGE: Lemonade Joe and his nemesis—who is outfitted in blackface because he has been posing as Louis Armstrong for a duet with Joe at the piano—square off in a shootout. The gunfire’s path appears onscreen as dotted lines so that we can see that the bullets are striking each other in midair, leading the duel to end in a draw.
THREE WEIRD THINGS: Fiddle eating; Czech blackface; dotted bullets
WHAT MAKES IT WEIRD: Communist propaganda, surreal Czech sensibilities, and an honest appreciation for the entertainment value of early Hollywood films collide to create a homegrown retro-Western musical spoof that could almost have come from the mind of Guy Maddin.
Clip from Lemonade Joe
COMMENTS: You hear the names Milos Forman, Vera Chytilová, and Jaromil Jires whenever the Czech New Wave is discussed, but Oldrich Lipský is seldom brought up. Perhaps Lipský is considered part of the Old Wave, having directed his first feature in 1951. Perhaps he is not taken as seriously as the others because he primarily made comedies and produced hit films that appealed as much to the masses as to dissident intellectuals, or because his work was not politically controversial enough to earn him the endorsement of the censors. This oversight is a shame, because Lipský’s 1960s work shares the same bold spirit of experimentation as his younger contemporaries, with a visual imagination worthy of Chytilová and a sense of casual absurdity that surely paved the way for those who came after. Lemonade Joe may be an early ripple in the coming Wave, but it hints at what the Czechs and Slovaks were capable of when they allowed their rich national heritage of fantasy and surrealism to seep onto film.
At a superficial level, Lemonade Joe is a simple parody of an American Western, particularly of the silly “singing cowboy” films of the 1930s by Gene Autry and imitators. Stylistically, however, Joe is very dense, drawing on Hollywood inspirations not only from Westerns but also from silent comedies and Looney Toon cartoons, and throwing in whatever anarchic idea best suits its purpose at the time. Most noteworthy is the tinting, which is an antique sepia for most of the running time but which changes to suit the film’s mood: red for Tornado Lou’s torch songs, steely blue for the sober scenes inside the Kolaloka Saloon, lemonade yellow for the sunny desert scenes, midnight blue or green when the villainous Hogofogo Badman is working one of his schemes. The film begins with a riotous, intricately choreographed barroom brawl, which doesn’t phase the cigar-chomping piano player. It includes undercranking and a cowboy hung from his suspenders on a bison horn. Later, disguised as a trumpet player, Hogofogo appear in blackface (another nod to silent comedy, and perhaps a dig at American racism); his subsequent jumps and jives take advantage of sped-up and reversed footage just as a Keystone comedy might. Other deviations from physical reality are even more free-form. Cigar smoke spells out secret messages. While riding the range, Lemonade Joe passes the Sphinx in the distance. Death is an illusion in this cartoonish caricature; a sip of salubrious soft drink is sufficient to resuscitate a felled cowpoke.
Mixed in with the obvious lampooning of cowboy tropes—the hero in the white hat, the hooker with a heart of gold, the yodeling—is an only slightly subtler satire of American capitalism. Straight-shooting Joe originally seems to be a selfless crusader for temperance. He favors lemonade, he says, because it keeps his wits straight and his reflexes fast. But not just any old lemonade: he endorses a particular brand, Kolaloka. Impressed by his pearly white teeth and his ability to silence flies with his six shooter, the townsfolk abandon the vice of whiskey and flock to the newly-opened Kolaloka saloon. Their switch in brand loyalty is not without some fallout, however. Carefully paired scenes show whiskey-drinking cowboys, too soused to shoot straight, making up and hugging each other after a drunken argument. Meanwhile, the sharp-witted lemonade drinkers fire so straight that no one survives a dispute (“when a drinker of Kolaloka shoots, no need to call a doctor!”, explains teetotaling Mr. Goodman with pride). Initially, the increased mortality rate of straight living may strike us a simply humorous irony; but is Joe’s image authentic, or is he engaged in some more sinister creative marketing? In the closest thing Lemonade Joe has to a twist, it turns out that the hero is not only a champion of justice, but also the regional salesman for Kolaloka! Perhaps Joe is only sober and virtuous because it’s an essential part of his brand identity. (It’s all a bit confused, however: Joe’s aversion to liquor does seem real, because later whiskey acts like Kryptonite on him).
Most critics stress Lemonade Joe‘s capitalist satire, but it is far rarer for a reviewer to mention the film’s less prominent but equally obvious Christ allegory. Not only is Joe a paragon of virtue, he undergoes his own mini-passion in the desert. After being betrayed by a trusted confidant, he is tied up against a tree in a crucifixion pose. He is mocked and his clothes are spattered with mud; he bears his punishment stoically. His now remorseful betrayer begs his forgiveness, which of course saintly Joe grants. He even literally dies and is resurrected. Of course, we might say the Christological nature of the cowboy hero is embedded in the classical Western genre: a wanderer, a righteous and chaste outsider, arrives in a corrupt town and saves the downtrodden from their oppressors, risking his own life in the process. But seldom does an oater dare to so explicitly re-enact (parody?) the crucifixion as does Lemonade Joe. Even in an officially atheist society, this symbolism could hardly be missed, but from a 21st century post-Communist perspective, we now struggle to understand how the authors intended it, or how the audience responded to it. Is it satire, deliberate blasphemy, or a sneaky way to play to religious sentiment in a society that officially forbade it? Perhaps the most we can say with certainty is that, looking at the genre as outsiders, Brdečka and Lipský explicitly recognize the cowboy Christ connection as an essential part of the Western myth and couldn’t make a proper parody without referencing it. Besides, what would a weird movie be without a Christ allegory somewhere in it?
In the end, much of Lemonade Joe‘s overarching attitude is confusing to us today. It’s a take on a familiar genre from a very different, ideologically opposed, culture. The film’s ludicrous Old West setting is at the same time an affectionate homage and a deconstructionist satire. The American frontier is shown as an exciting horizon promising excitement and freedom, but is it all just a facade for a soft drink ad? Joe is genuinely likable, the villains deliciously despicable, but by the end they merge into a single company of capitalist lackeys. These tensions make Lemonade Joe a gold rush for film studies prospectors seeking to mine academic nuggets. Yet, I suspect that despite its nuances, the movie is at its heart simple, and its contradictions not as irreconcilable as they appear. Brdečka and Lipský make fun of capitalists because they’re Communists. They also genuinely like Westerns because cowboys are cool, and they admire Joe because the non-capitalist virtues he embodies—temperance, justice, consideration for the less fortunate, skill at arms—are honorable ones, no matter what time or place you come from. As scathing Marxist propaganda, Lemonade Joe is a failure, but that’s because its primary aim isn’t to indoctrinate, but to delight. For this reason even the reddest, whitest, and bluest American patriot, the die-hardest capitalist running dog, could hardly be seriously offended by Lemonade Joe‘s gentle anti-consumerist ribbing. The movie is pure entertainment, and although ideology drives the plot in some wild directions, it only makes it all the weirder and more wonderful.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:
“…one of the strangest films—let alone westerns—ever made.”–Time Out
IMDB LINK: Lemonade Joe (1964)
OTHER LINKS OF INTEREST:
Lemonade Joe: soft-drink purveying cowboy and cult Czech figure – Tereza Brdečková (daughter of Jiří Brdečka, Lemonade Joe’s inventor) describes the film for the English-language edition of Radio Prague
“COMEDY, CAPITALISM AND KOLAKODA: Adapting the American West in Lemonade Joe (1963)” – Cynthia J. Miller’s thorough analysis of the movie for “International Westerns: Re-Locating the Frontier” (Scarecrow Press, 2014)
Way out West: Oldřich Lipský’s Limonádovy Joe aneb koňská opera
(Lemonade Joe, 1964) – Czech film historian Peter Hames’ essay/review on Lemonade Joe for Kinoeye, Oct 2002
Western Goes East: Limonádový Joe and its possible interpretations – A diploma thesis by Kateřina Mléčková outlining possible readings of Lemonade Joe
Lemonade Joe (film) – TV Tropes – Lemonade Joe‘s parodic nature makes it a natural for the trope-listing site
Lemonade Joe – Internet Firearms Movie Database – This very specialized site catalogs all of the guns in Lemonade Joe, creating a nice collection of stills in the process
Lemonade Joe and Jesus – A sermon by a Czech Presbyterian outlining similarities between Joe and Jesus
DVD INFO: Nonprofit Facets Video unleashed Lemonade Joe (buy) on an uncaring public in 2006. Unfortunately, while Facets does excellent work keeping films that might otherwise be neglected in circulation, their DVD releases continually receive low marks. This one is no exception (Stuart Galbraith IV of DVD Talk went so far as to call it “an unmitigated disaster in every respect.”) The transfer is low quality, with frequent interlacing during action sequences; it is badly cropped in the wrong aspect ratio (about 1.67:1, although due to letterboxing the display image is 1.33:1, versus the correct widescreen 2.35:1); and the English translations are at times embarrassing. It also comes with no extra features, although there is a booklet with an essay by Czech film expert Peter Hames.
Adventurous cinephiles willing to dig a little deeper for a higher-quality edition may want to check out Film Export, who offer what has been reported to be an excellent and faithful DVD transfer (the YouTube clips they provide are a noticeable improvement over Facets). There are even rumor of an English dub track! Unfortunately, the Film Export site is not in English, and we have no firsthand knowledge of the quality of the release.
Plugging in the URL to Google Translate helps somewhat; DVD and Blu-Ray are available in what appears to be an all-region release on both platforms; it is in 2:35:1 aspect ratio and has a Czech AND English language track, as well as subtitles in Czech & English. There also appears to be bonus material – interviews with people connected with the film.
Lipsky’s work is worth searching for; as well as HAPPY END, there’s the sci-fi satire I KILLED EINSTEIN and the pulp melodrama pastiche ADELE HASN’T HAD HER DINNER YET.
This movie is hilarious. I can’t believe I never heard of it before.
The best parodies are the ones that show a familiarity – even affection – towards the original subject. From the saloon brawl which opens “Lemonade Joe”, you can tell right away that this is one of those.
A note about Karl May: in the late 19th century, he wrote many westerns which were bestsellers throughout central Europe, despite the fact that he’d never left Germany (he finally traveled to America in 1908, but he only made it as far as Buffalo, NY – he never saw the West that he wrote so much about). He was also Hitler’s favorite author.
This is such a classic in our country, I’m so happy to see it here! If you liked “Limonádový Joe” I’d also recommend “Tajemství hradu v Karpatech”, a Lipský’s and Brdečka’s take on the horror genre.
“Tajemství hradu v Karpatech” is called “The Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians” in English, and you may be happy to know it is in our to-be-reviewed queue.
Oh, great. 🙂 I didn’t know whether it had an oficial English title. I’m looking forward to it then!
I always wondered how an outsider may view our beloved “Lemonade Joe”, and I’m glad to see that it struck a note. It was no doubt helped by the fact that the translator did a splendid job – the English subtitles are an outstanding example of a superbly done translation, succeeding in preserving almost all aspects of the original – from multiple layers of meaning to cadence to jokes and word-plays. I was thoroughly amazed. Is the name of the translator known, by any chance?
After reading the review, I’d like to point out one thing, though – Lemonade Joe was never intended as a “Marxist propaganda” or poking fun at “The West”, and “Capitalism”. Rather, it was a satire of the way the ruling (and by that time much hated) Communists expected these things of art and especially movies (that they subly or overtly praise Communism and denigrate Capitalism). Remember that this movie was released in 1964, and by this time the local sentiment was so anticommunist that Russia had to invade and take the country by force in 1968.
Tony, can I assume you’re Czech? (Your English is excellent). If so, I am curious as to how old you were when you saw the movie and how it was perceived at that time. Was it a huge hit that remained popular forever, or did its reputation (and maybe the interpretation) change over time?
Actually, I live in what is Slovakia now, but we used to be one country with the Czechs mere 30 years ago.
“Limonádový Joe” (pronounced jokingly more like “Yoe”, like a Czech or Slovak would read the name, betraying -and acknowledging- the lack of real understaning of the Wild West or, for that matter, contemporary West) is a timeless classic and is popular now as ever. I saw a re-run on TV just a few days ago (the movie is still played a couple of times a year on major TV stations), and remembered that I saw a version with English subtitles on youtube (which is, sadly, gone now), and started digging for it, which is how I ended up here. But enough digression…
I can’t judge the exact perception at the time of release, as it coincides with birth of my parents 🙂 but it is universally accepted that it was a hit right there and then as it came out. The perception was no doubt a bit different, what with Westerns still being a popular serious genre (I think Winnetou came out around that time too), so many classical Western tropes and references may be lost on the younger audience.
Some aspects of the movie I came to appreciate only recently, though – like when HogoFogo as a black-faced trupeter barges into the hotel room, pursued by Joe, and his brogher, not recognizing him, yells “only for whites” – this reference to racism was completely slipping me by until I learned about the african-american past. So, on the other hand, as peoples’ understanding of the West improves, new facets of the film emerge.
The movie was shot at a time when filmmakers were getting increasingly bold in the face of communist censors, and obviously fed up with the idea that all art should promote communism, so they were taking jabs at the biased way capitalism and communism were portrayed in movies before.
But first and foremost, the movie was and still is a light-hearted comedy. As such, it is not subjected to much analysis or interpretation.
And, lest we forget, a musical – I am so smitten by the wonderful music; comlex, jazzy, yet still so catchy. And fitting so well into the mood of each moment.
I’ve seen the movie at least a dozen of times so far, and when I’ll come across it next time while idly switching channels, I have no doubt that I will watch it till the end again.
Thanks for your perspective, it’s very illuminating for us! All we can usually learn about movies made in foreign countries a long time ago is what critics and academics write about it, which doesn’t always tell the whole story.
I love the song “So Far,” the music is uplifting and the English lyrics are absurd and hilarious: “On my way do I say to my valley, though I lay, so gay, goodbye.”