Liberty, love

Flashback to Budapest:

Szent István Király, a.k.a. King Steven I of Hungary, doesn't look so happy here. In stark contrast to the image of majestic command on display in the Castle District, Steven seems introspective here, anxious. It could be because his horse is trying to edge him off of the pedestal.

Or it could be because of the location. Steven is looking roughly in the direction of the Cave Chapel, which was built by Pauline monks into a part the natural cave system of Gellért Hill. On Easter in 1951, the Communist Secret Police stormed the Cave Chapel, arrested all the monks on charges of treason, executed their leader, and sentenced the rest to prison. The Chapel itself was walled up, and only reopened in 1989.

Behind Steven is the Liberty Bridge, or "Szabadság híd" in the original Magyar. In front of him, over the Cave Chapel, looms the Hungarian Statue of Liberty, or "Szabadság-szobor." This statue, erected in 1947, boasted an original inscription which read, "Erected by the grateful Hungarian Nation in memory of the liberating Russian heroes."

As you might imagine, the word "szabadság" is quite historically loaded for the Hungarians.

While in Budapest, I had the chance to see a new Hungarian film, "Szabadság, szerelem." The official English title is "Children of Glory;" but, the literal translation is "Liberty, love." It's about the 1956 Hungarian Olympic water polo team, which had the distinction of winning a gold medal for a nation that did no longer existed (the Soviets having re-taken the country while the team was en route to the Games).

The picture was an odd amalgam of European Arthouse Film and Hollywood Action Movie, with the 1st Assistant Director given prominent billing in the credits for directing all the fight & water polo scenes. So, half the film was directed by one person, half by another. As such, vigorously paced battle scenes had a tendency to inexplicably lead to long, static shots of composed drama.

Of course, the real problem may have been too many writers: four are credited, which probably means at least six worked on it. And one of them is... Joe Eszterhas. Yes, that Eszterhas, the guy who wrote such classics as "Flashdance", "Basic Instinct", "Showgirls", and "Basic Instinct 2" (Electric Bugaloo).

I went to see this film with my friend Ljova, his fiancée Inna, and their friend Jeff. And at some point mid-way through the film, I started getting very nervous. The four of us were clearly not responding to the film as its many authors had intended. As Americans, there was no way we could hold back from laughter at the bathetic dialogue (e.g., "Grandfather says, sometimes you have to hit back!" the lead water polo player exclaimed, before going outside to blast away a group of Secret Police.). I think Ljova (who is from Russia) and Inna (who is from Lithuania) couldn't help but identify at least a bit with the evil Soviets in the film, since they were speaking in Russian. Inna in particular couldn't help but sing along every time the Soviet anthem played — as it inevitably did to announce some horrid disaster about to befall the poor Hungarians. And as four Jews, the inevitable paranoia kicked in: At the climactic moment of the film, as brave Hungarians are being massacred onscreen, they run about wailing, "The Soviets have betrayed us! The Americans have abandonded us! And the Jews are to blame!" And there we sat, thankfully in one of the back rows, four American Jews, two of us former Soviets, as we were collectively blamed onscreen for the Great Hungarian National Tragedy. Fortunately, the English-subtitled screening was only sparsely attended, and had likely not attracted the most ferverent Magyar nationalists.

At the end of the film (spoiler warning), in contravention of the movie's title, the Hungarians end up with neither freedom nor love... unless the defection to the West of the entire national water polo team counts as freedom.

Could that be why Steven looks so unhappy?