General Hadik

So today we HAD to go to the local cinema and watch this movie. Yes we had to, sadly. (Im a student)

I was hoping that it'll be better than the Hungarian historical drama / "educational" series Aranybulla :D But I was wrong. So wrong. The movie's real life story - because it's based on a real life "event"- is interesting in it's own, but not as the battle of Mohács, or the battle of Eger, which has it's own book, but no, we had to go with Hadik. Okay, let's get over it.

The story unfolds from a single battlefield fight to a bigger adventure for the hussars into a complete siege. The movie in the first half is "slow", it introduces us the characters, whom have nothing interesting on their own, they are 2 dimensional good guys and bad guys, there's no one in the middle, and no one has any other goals or traits that can deepen the character itself. The story goes on, we have chase scenes and fight scenes. Okay, that's great, I thought, but the choreography was so bad. They just swinged their swords all over the place. It was so lame and bad.

The movie had so much horse riding scenes. - ofc because there are hussars in there- but the riding scenes were too long and unnecessary. The long camera movement shots gave the movie a bad look, but the cinematography was okay for a Hungarian movie, which had 7.47M USD as an overall budget. But some CGI shots were terrible. I know they had to put it in to flex that they have it, but the CGI was off. The music was off too, it was like they just put there a no copyright medieval soundtrack. The sound design was okay, it had some bad sound effects, but overall I thought that it was enjoyable.

The second part of the movie was a turning point, or the last quarter to be specific, because they put so many jokes in it, -compared to the first half-, and so many badly choreographed fight scenes with a CGI cannonball shot which blew my mind, it was so bad that it was the funniest scene in the movie for me. I know the budget was not too high, but come on, they hadn't had to put it in the movie. So the second half was a little bit funny, a little bit cheesy, and there were unnecessary drama scenes and connections between characters, which were solved quickly and badly.

I give this movie a 3 out of 10. It had good sound design, cinematography (compared to the other Hungarian movies) and the acting was okay, but the CGI, dialogue, and the story itself were not good. It's just another badly made Hungarian historical drama/action/adventure movie.

This movie tells a great story and in the same time focusing on the human side just as much. Humble, not playing it over and reflecting on the era without using 21st century superhero movie pieces. If you look at the battle, that's exactly what it meant to be in a battle in those times.

Some, who might be spoiled with the nowadays level of CGI might be sour about this movie, but in my opinion, the story is always shall come first instead of special effects.

Great casting, great play overall.

And majestic, uplifting, respectful to the heritage of being a Huszár. True image of their compassion and dedication.

Well done, we need more!

A beautiful story, smart warfare, a story about the Hungarian hussars, showing their humanity and the warfare of the time. A film about the life of the Hussars, with great actors and jokes, revealing some Hussar "secrets". Historical significance of clever warfare, and the respect and appreciation of the Hussars of the time is shown, while we see their lives as private men, their families, rivaling the loyalty of their country. Beautiful shots, funny scenes and touching emotions alternate to make this a lovely film. Fantastic costumes, locations, every scene is very beautifully executed. The actors are talented, well acted. Perhaps the story could have been even bigger with more fiction.

The cinematography is professional, beautiful and atmospheric... the costumes are beautiful.. But unfortunately this is not enough... if everything else is weak.

The weakest is the acting, directing and scriptwriting!

The story is unfortunately stupid and boring, and there is no real conflict, even though the film's trailer is campaigning about how much danger the hussars are in and what patriotic actions they perform. The purpose of the trip is to bring back a glove... the hussars fight without real emotions and passion... winning a bet, not the real defense of the homeland.

The characters have no real personality, no concrete motivation, characterless characters with whom you can hardly identify. We get bored of them, we don't get excited for them.

The biggest problem with the film is the completely unfilmic, theatrical sound of the actors' speech. When will Hungarian film production finally stop this huge mistake? Professional actors learn speech technique in college... let them stop this mannered, theatrical, terrible style of speech... the role they are playing becomes unreliable if the actor speaks in this mannered, overdramatized style. Those speech teachers who think this is the right acting style should be fired from the college. And those directors and sound engineers who think this kind of voice and acting style is right should be urgently sent for a hearing test.

The text put into the mouths of the characters in the film, their speaking style hurts one's ears because it is emotionless or overdramatized, but by no means a normal speaking voice. And the fact that the actor speaks to the viewer and speaks to the viewer is simply total amateurism.

This film is a shining example of all the problems of Hungarian filmmaking:

• there is no proper scriptwriting, dramaturgy, text, character development, development of motivations,
• the actors' excessive theatrical style of acting and speaking style spoils the entire atmosphere and watchability of the film.

• the professionalism of the director and sound engineer is questionable if these amateurish mistakes are not noticed.

Scenery is correct: landscapes, buildings, interiors, costumes are quite beautiful, full of colours and lights, some scenes have really great atmosphere, you can feel the breeze above the fields, enyoy the light of the sunset or full moon, the sounds of crickets in the morning, etc., Gyori Mark is very talented and so from this point of view this film would have deserved 9 or 10 stars out of ten.

Unfortunately, the story is banal and boring enough (whether it is based on true events or not), because of lack of any true conflict: the campaign related by the film hasn't any serious target, there is nothing at stake, hussars struggle by no emotions or passion, not for family, nor for country or even not for vengeance, they act only because Mária Terézia ask them to, Hadik's hussars doesn't even know where they are going to while riding and what is the purpose of their campaign.

Characters are one-dimensional, they hasn't any personality, any specific motivation, they are featureless heroes with no memories, wishes, so you can hardly identify with them, and can't feel excited for them, too.

The film is full of sentences aiming to sound cathartic but these statements don't fit the actual situation where they are pronounced in, furthermorme, they are lifeless, meaningless, they are not told to others to express the character's current emotions, thoughts, wills at the moment; heroes speak directly to the spectator.