The little-seen Czech film …And the Fifth Horseman Is Fear is a gripping exposé of political oppression. Highly original, it is a masterpiece of cinema from 1965.
Right away we know that we’re in a state of repression because Braun (Miroslav Machácek) is employed in a warehouse of confiscated objects. Who other than an oppressive authoritarian regime needs to industrialize the confiscation of people’s things? Then we learn that Braun is Dr. Braun, who can no longer practice medicine because he is Jewish.
The story purports to be set in Nazi-occupied Prague during WW II. But the filmmakers employed no period costumes, automobiles or other means to create a setting in the 1940s. Instead, it has the look of a contemporary 1960s film, which makes it clear that the repression is really that of the Soviet-controlled communist puppets in Czechoslovakia’s own government.
Now, Braun shuffles between his lonely apartment and his warehouse job on empty streets. He is just trying to keep his head down, as is apparently everyone else in Prague. Everyone walks on egg shells because everyone else may be an informer. Everyone knows about the most obvious informer, Mr. Fanta (Josef Vinklár), another resident of Dr. Braun’s apartment building.
But no one can be trusted, and every social interaction might lead to being hauled off by secret police. The secret police Komisar (Jirí Vrstála) is excellent at inspiring terror – with complete intentionality.
When a person in need staggers into Dr. Braun’s life, he takes risks, and …And the Fifth Horseman Is Fear follows his nightmarish quest for mercy. Dr. Braun is motivated by responsibility to others, an island of decency in a corrupted society where everyone only looks out for themselves. Actor Miroslav Machácek is excellent as a man who swims against the tide and risks his very life for someone else; he is compelled to do the right thing although he is canny enough to understand the risks.
Director and co-writer Zbynek Brynych uses every element of cinema to portray the heavy hand of authoritarianism. The apartment building’s claustrophobic stairway, the empty streets, an asylum, and the warehouse’s neatly sorted possessions of long-lost owners, are all stark and full of menace.
Most of the soundtrack is discordant jazz, although marching band music pops up at the most improbable times.
One the most indelible scenes is at a nightclub, where partiers fervently dive into denial. Drinking and dancing, the patrons pretend that they have some control over their futures. Peppy nightclub music enhances the absurdity.
Brynych directed 25 feature films, 150 episodes of a long-running Czech TV series, and was nominated for a Cannes award in 1958.
Roger Ebert labeled …And the Fifth Horseman Is Fear as “an almost perfect film” and incorrectly, but justifiably, predicted it would win the Best Foreign Language Picture Oscar (but Czechoslovakia’s Closely Watched Trains won instead).
I watched …And the Fifth Horseman Is Fear at Noir City International. Noir City’s founder Eddie Muller discovered …And the Fifth Horseman Is Fear by finding the DVD in the racks of San Francisco’s legendary Amoeba Records. It is not currently streamable, but a DVD can be purchased on the Internet.
