The Firemen's Ball

Audience Reviews

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Kylo G Jun 6, 2018 Its humor is a slow burn, piling up the catastrophes one after another until the whole kit and caboodle goes up in flames. There's a spark here—just a spark, really, a bright hint at the pyrotechnics that will come later in Forman's career—but it's hard to know whether it's of madness or of genius, though it's likely a mixture of the two, the madness of the maddening crowd, the genius of a blossoming subversion. Yet, despite how bright the satire and the humor, I found the film to be somewhat dull, just as its characters and worldview are dim. It is a film that requires patience for the humor to grow, but for me, by the time the set up was paid off, I had grown impatient with the buffoonery and stupidity—though perhaps, to a degree, that is built in to the movie. Whatever political heat this carried in 1967, whatever foreign charm, is lost now, like ashes in the wind, now turned cool into snow. See more

Leia S May 2, 2018 There's a kind of brutal honesty at the heart of all the madcap antics. Forman clearly sees humans for what they are and no high minded ideals or political systems will every change that. See more

Anakin W Sep 1, 2017 Follow the farcical misadventures of a small Czech fire dept trying to honor their ailing chairman in Milos Forman's final hometown film chock full of scathing mockery of Soviet society. Big Shocker: this film was permanently banned. See more

Leia L Mar 24, 2017 The genuine acting and the humorous situations make this movie really funny to watch. The people in this movie, you can almost make caricatures out of them. They all have such memorable and distinct different faces and personalities. This movie just confirms how great Milos is as a director. How he can make something so simple, have only one film location, and make it so entertaining. I love how everything falls apart towards the end, nothing goes as planned. It was so sad seeing that old man still sitting there at the end and everyone gone. As if everyone had forgotten about him. Pretty damn cynical movie but a great one at that. Very funny movie! See more

Han L Mar 9, 2017 Very interesting early work from Forman and a sly satire on Communism

Abraham S Jul 28, 2016 On of the brightest highlights of director Milos Forman's now-legendary filmography. A film on how people interact with one another. See more

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The Firemen's Ball

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