University of New Orleans ScholarWorks@UNO Habsburg's Last War: The Filmic Memory (1918 to the Present) University of New Orleans Press 6-2018 The First World War in the Czech and Slovak Cinema Václav Šmidrkal Charles University, Prague Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uno.edu/hlw Part of the European History Commons, and the Film and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation Šmidrkal, Václav. “The First World War in the Czech and Slovak Cinema.” In Habsburg’s Last War: The Filmic Memory (1918 to the Present), edited by Hannes Leidinger, 69-92. New Orleans: University of New Orleans Press, 2018. This Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the University of New Orleans Press at ScholarWorks@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in Habsburg's Last War: The Filmic Memory (1918 to the Present) by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UNO. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. THE FIRST WORLD WAR IN THE CZECH AND SLOVAK CINEMA1 Václav Šmidrkal Introduction In a speech broadcast from the Vítkov National Memorial in Prague on October 28, 2014, the ninety-sixth anniversary of Czechoslovakia’s declaration of independence, Colonel Jaroslav Vodička, Chairman of the Czech Union of Freedom Fighters (Český svaz bojovníků za svobodu), urged the Czech government to fund a new feature film about the Czechoslovak Legionnaires. He said, “we lack a film in our cinema that would show the audience the heroic campaign of the Legionnaires and their fundamental influence on the recognition of Czechoslovakia. It is one of the brightest points in our modern history, deserving of a high-quality film adaptation.