Admirable film.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The acting in this movie is really good.

After watching 7 Czech Sci-Fi flicks I decided that it was time to start looking at a new area of Czech cinema. Checking movies that a DVD seller, (who is a big Czech film fan) had tracked down,I remembered him praising what might be the only Czech Western ever made!,which led to me having a glass of lemonade with Joe.The plot:1885:Disguised at how drunk everyone is in the salons, evangelists Ezra Goodman and his daughter Winnifred decide to go round the salons and get the cowboys off hard drinks for their own, non-alcoholic drink Kolaloka. Initially taking no notice,the cowboys quickly change their mind when legendary cowboy Lemonade Joe rides into town a praises the drink.Fearing that his bars are about to go bust,owner Doug Badman brings his brother Horace (aka: "Hogofogo, the Master Criminal of the Wild West") in,to give Joe his last drop of lemonade.View on the film:Pulling the most American genre over the Iron Curtain,co- writer/(along with Jirí Brdecka)director Oldrich Lipský crossfires surreal cowboy shootouts with a glance towards the early beginnings of the genre.Filling the barrooms with Vlastimil Hála & Jan Rychlík's piano-led score, Lipský and cinematographer Vladimír Novotný spill stylish blue,red and lemon tints over the movie,which along with wrapping the title in an elegant Silent Movie appearance,are joined by film speed manipulation,that give the title a unique,quirky atmosphere.Working in the "traditional" clichés of the genre, Lipský and Jirí Brdecka's adaptation of Brdecka's shoots pointed satirical darts at US capitalism and Soviet Union communism.Stuffing the bars full of their own brand of Coca Cola/ Kolaloka,the writers wonderfully paint Joe as a good kid determined to spread a capitalism product across the west.Keeping a black and white minstrel in line to "play his part",the writers brilliantly open the characters strongly held ideas over tradition,as a sly card game to play the Soviet Union's ridged belief over "what part" people must play against the wild west.Entering what was to become the biggest hit at the 60's Czech box office, Karel Fiala gives Czech's their own lemon drop kid,by blending a heroic sense of adventure in Joe with a dashing animated smile,as Lemonade Joe pours himself some lemonade.

One user here wrote in his review that Lemonada Joe is not subtle. I couldn't disagree more, but I can understand his statement. Lemonada Joe is in fact so bound to Czech culture that translation of it's subtle poetry to another culture is very hard. For us it's a clever game with (communist) propaganda and our rather naïve image of wild west, liberty and honesty. Lemonada Joe is not satire "per se", it's not just slapstick fun and it's also not a simple critique of early capitalist society but rather cinematic pastiche or cinephile comedy with relativist look on morality (idealism is possible only in a silly movie). Brdečka's script uses a lots of puns and witty humor. For example when Lemonada Joe calls his enemy "smrdutý oposume", the meaning in English is just rough "stinking opossum". But in Czech language it's much more hilarious and refined because it connects rather obsolete adjective and a little known zoological term. In Lemonada Joe are tons of similar nuances in language and cinematic style. I, like others Czechs, has grown up with movies like this. It's part of my childhood, my Czech soul. In an original book the final end of Lemonada Joe is absurd and dark. At his fiftieth birthday he will be drown and overcooked during a visit of a fruit factory in a barrel of hot lemonade. Into his grave is buried a bottle with this delicious drink. Yes, we Czechs understand this dark end very well.

I'm pleasantly surprised there are so many reviews for "Lemonade Joe", considering that most reviewers on IMDb are American or West-European movie fans. But films like this have some special meanings for people on the other side of Europe.While communism controlled every segment of life, it was natural that only regime-approved movies could be made, so they had to glorify socialism, Soviet Union (except in Yugoslavia and Albania), expectation of better future (due to Communist party), also they had to condemn capitalism, USA, religion (not in all countries equally). That's why movie about USA (if not pure propaganda) could have been just a parody. In the same time, ordinary people (even some members of Communist parties) envied West Europeans and Americans, secretly wishing capitalism to come to their countries, and especially USA was a Shangri-La and a liberator. Today, with socialism more than a decade behind, East Europe can see West half-closed, mostly indifferent; USA disappointed them even more as one of the last to recognize newborn countries (though, for example, they always declared that they do not recognize occupation of Baltic states). As soon as Soviet Union ceased to exist all those small states full of hope suddenly went out of USA interest. So a white suit and hat of a good cowboy lost its meaning and he can wear anything now, his mask fell, all he wants is to sell Cola-Loca. It doesn't matter who is good or bad (who started killing and who was defending himself), who is poor/rich, honest/thief, as long as business can develop free... And, of course, who has the oil! If there were oil in Czech rep. it would be in EEC long ago, if there were oil in Yugoslavia a war maybe wouldn't have started (and if it did, the winner would have probably been the one with biggest oil supplies). But, instead of that, US showed complete lack of interest in East Europe, taking them away their biggest hope. Disappointed and betrayed by those who inspired them for more than 4 decades (and some still bleeding from war wounds) East Europeans can see this movie as a unbelievable exact prophecy. And the biggest irony, it was made from those communists that were so desperately expected to vanish! (Do I hear a big laugh from Stalin's grave?)Not only parodying westerns (mildly, gently, with a smile) and American consumers way of living (much more bitter), it shows people as a herd: the first one is followed by all the others. If drinking whiskey is declared to be modern, everybody does it, when it's modern to drink Cola-Loca, they all change their attitudes and habits, and it doesn't matter if a black or white suit guy leads - people accept what is said to be "in" (they didn't have satellite TVs and talk-shows, but Joes and Horáces were enough). I also thought it was a parody to European art-movies but this one seems to be older. Photo and editing is western-like during action, but when music starts it changes to Vera Chytilova-style (though it's older than her well known works), so it can be a parody to modern art too.* A spoiler describing the end *Finally, resurrection in last scene connects past and today again (remember Jackson-McCartney "Say, Say, Say" music video, and all modern magic curatives). Everyone appears to be a family like in soap-operas (again something ahead of the time). Most supporting characters were copied from Goscinny's Lucky Luke and Jacovitti's Coco Bill (Europe vision again!), and it's funny. Main characters were symbolic (even names - Goodman, Badman), and the standard clichés are well and justly used. Everything seems to be done O.K. - just I feel a little cheated, because a smile never became a laughter (rather a yawning). The plot was simply enough for 20 minutes cartoon, interrupted by countless songs (don't get me wrong, I have some Gott and Matuska records!), and it all seems like a big wasted chance. Are we too spoiled by Mel Brooks' parodies?Just one more answer: the title song doesn't contain Czech words, but English and Spanish words were obviously intentionally used without a meaning - common c&w words put together like common characters and action in western movies.Wear a smile, take a cup of coffee, and read between the lines!

Oh yes, you may watch it even if you are an American or Japanese, but - what for ? You will not understand all of these jokes so typical for the Czechs, like you will not understand all of the jokes in Hasek´s Good Soldier Svejk. But you may try - I voted 10 points for this film ...