This is my first dive into Czechoslovakian cinema and boy what a spectacle it was!
Krakatit arrived a little after the first testing of an atomic bomb and, riding that wave of terror, horror and fear while it's new, Otakar Vávra put out his version of a substance so destructive it could blow up the whole world all by itself, that's how powerful this is. Of course it all is far from being authentic or scientific and serves more as a hyperbolization of a possible end if the people won't stop experimenting with explosives in their labs but is nonetheless scary and makes you very aware of the things that might come.
The brilliant chemist Prokop, played beautifully by Karel Höger, becomes a target of multiple people who are eager to get their hands on his powerful invention in order to become the masters of the world. It is a premise you have likely seen a hundred times already but this movie plays out a bit differently than expected. It gives plenty of room to speculate on the subject of war, deaths and destruction but the narrative doesn't give much information on what is actually going on while we're at it. It could all be just some feverish man's dream, there could be some truth to his story, a lot of truth or even an actual account of events that really happened. The director toys with you every single second and by doing so makes you doubt everything.
For a movie titled Krakatit it repeats this word just enough times to install fear in it and by the end of it you feel scared to your wits. It even begins to sound scary to you when you repeat it and it's no wonder - it was named after Krakatoa volcano which eruption in 1883 destroyed over 70% of land surrounding it and took thousands of lives with it.
Weird camera angles, symbolism, psychoanalysis and post traumatic side of it are surely inspired by Hitchcock's Spellbound and Trumbo's novel Johnny Got His Gun (some parts of it most probably inspired his own later movie version of the novel in return) which just goes to show how truly ageless this movie is. Perfect cinematography with not a single frame wasted on hollow expositions, fantastic music score that cools your blood down, outstanding production that doesn't defer much from that of Hollywood from that era and great performances - it all takes you on one of the most nightmarish journeys in your movie lifetimes, gives you some headscratchers along the way and makes you think hard.
