THE GOOD SOLDIER SCHWEJK

Brauner’s commentary on West Germany’s rearmament: now that the country had its troops back one had to occupy one’s self with the worst-case scenario once again. Ambesser’s adaptation of the classic novel stacks up better nowadays than one would have thought back then, based on the reviews. The composition is tidy, the lines are interestingly cool; its didacticism is pronounced, without being annoyingly pedagogical. While it’s true that much of the specific, the exaggeratedly sharp-tongued, was removed from the original, this however helped to clarify the view of the very radically humanist, antiauthoritarian (and not only antimilitaristic) core of the story. Definitely a rediscovery!