Fireman's Ball *****

For the average cinema patron, the back story behind what a filmmaker had to go through to see his project completed is meaningless; but you, my friends, are not average in anyway. Your high level of education and breeding is clear for the sole reason that you are reading this site.

This background information is not always important, but when the situation a director is in affects what he puts in a movie or how he shoots a scene; you, the best and brightest, should certainly care. This background adds something to the viewing experience.

For example, I was polishing off a marvelous bottle of Cognac with Orson Welles in the late 40s when we were discussing the movie that was not only his masterpiece that many consider the greatest movie ever made, but also the project that ended his career, Citizen Kane. The movie led to his downfall, because, at the precocious age of 25, Welles decided to take on one of the most powerful men in America, publisher William Randolph Hearst. Into the cups a bit, Orson admitted that he had one regret about Citizen Kane.

There was one scene that Welles talked about adding with his screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz regarding the mysterious death of producer Thomas Ince on Hearst’s boat in 1924. Many stories circulated about what happened, but the one that Mank (who knew several people on the boat) told Welles was that Hearst believed his wife was sleeping with Charlie Chaplin. According to the story, Hearst flew into a jealous rage and tried to shoot the actor, but hit Ince by accident. Due to Hearst’s influence, the story that was published was that Ince died of a stomach ailment. Looking back, Welles believed if he had inserted that scene, Hearst would have never challenged the film because he would have had to claim responsibility in the Ince affair.

Looking back on how that film affected the movie world and publishing, I find in fascinating. Maybe Welles could have gone on to make several other great films if Hearst hadn’t destroyed him here.

Milos Forman faced similar problems when he was making Fireman’s Ball, but if he made the wrong choice during a scene or inserted the wrong line of dialogue, the result would have been worse than a wrecked career. A mistake here could have cost him his life. See, the Czechoslovakian censors were not known for their taste in satire especially when aimed at the local Communist government. Forman and his screenwriter Ivan Prosser had to use the subtlest of humor to get his message across and it is that subtlety that leads to a comedy you can watch over and over again and find different things to laugh about each time.

On the surface, the movie is about a local volunteer fire department that is holding a ball to send off one of their own into retirement. They actually meant to do it the year before when the guy was actually retiring, but they kept putting it off, now the retiring fire fighter has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and the ball has a feel of shoveling dirt on the guy’s grave.

The running theme is that everything the fire fighters do is a dollar short. They hastily plan a beauty pagent at the last second and when all of the women you would want in such a pagent turn them down, they are stuck with shy, plump women who would probably be happy with a trophy made of chocolate and whipped cream.

Another scene shows two volunteers putting up a banner, but when the ladder collapses, the banner catches on fire. In each instance, individual people are not the focus of the satire, but it is the group or the unit. This little fire department and the people setting up the party are symbolic of the Communist party – a dollar short.

Now, I know in the past that I’ve complained about movies devoted to a theme, but that is because the picture is more concerned about being about a cause than about being a movie. In the case of Fireman’s Ball, the subtlety needed to get these lines past the censors makes the finished product even wittier. It’s like hearing the great double entendre dialogue from the 1930s and 1940s when screenwriters were trying to get their material past the Breen Office.

This very funny picture is made all the more dramatic and interesting knowing that if the government officials were smart enough to figure out what Forman was doing he would probably be arrested. Instead, the censors complained that the movie portrayed their society in a negative light. They missed the big picture and Forman remained a free man and was able to immigrate to America where he won an Oscar as Best Director for One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I like Fireman’s Ball better.

My favorite scene of the movie is at the end where in the middle of the ball the fire fighters respond late to a blazing barn. Outside as they watch the structure burn to the ground, the farmer complains to one of the fire fighters that he was cold. So the fire fighter pushes him a little closer to the fire. A little jab at the censors, maybe?