I'm quite disappointed with this movie. It was clearly made by someone who knows a lot about American movies and cinema in general, but nothing about Hungary in the 1990's. Oh yes, that's exactly Nimród Antal, the Hungarian filmmaker born and raised in the US. The result is a weird hybrid of a weak American crime story and a Hungarian movie.
It's difficult to tell who was this movie made for. I imagine it was intended for a Hungarian audience, as hardly anyone outside our borders ever heard of Attila Ambrus or his shenanigans. After all, his story is hardly unique: a bank robber with a lot of luck, who was later captured, but escaped, then captured again and spent a lot of time in the slammer. Try telling this story at a party to non-Hungarians and they'll think you're tired.
The movie fails to capture the mystery of the real Whisky Bandit's story, which wasn't even really about the Whisky Bandit himself. He wasn't popular because Hungarians like criminals or bank robberies. His series of robberies revealed how impotent and corrupted Hungarian state authorities were. This might be very difficult to grasp for anyone who never lived in an Eastern European country, Nimród Antal included. Former Socialist states are still stuck in Soviet times when it comes to state administration. Authorities like the police are practically living on a legend of their invincibility and infallibility, while they're terribly underfunded, undermanned, corrupted and amateurish. Eastern Europeans perceive the police as an oppressive force, not a public service. When a cop walks up to you and asks for your ID, your stomach begins to sink. They aren't your friends, they don't serve you. They are bullies operating along odd policies that make little sense, often acting on a personal whim, frequently departed not only from the law, but reality and common sense. This is why common folk cheered the Whisky Bandit who made a fool of the police and revealed how worthless they were.
I have to give credit to the movie for one thing: it did attempt to capture this petty pursuit of power, so characteristic of law enforcement in Hungary. The scene where it's revealed that the detective is trying to push extra charges on Ambrus to compensate for his own failed life is very accurate and Eastern European. Indeed this is how they operate: if they can lay their hand on someone, they'll unleash their wrath and often make up excuses to completely destroy the suspect's life. Many and more people are in prison in Hungary who may have committed a crime, but not what they had been convicted for.
The scenes are full of serious anachronisms. There's almost always something out of picture: a car from a later era, a poster advertising a band that was only formed ten years later, objects and items alien from the time period. Locations are switched abruptly many times, and the characters take impossible routes around Budapest, jumping from one place to another. This may not be an issue for a foreigner watching the movie, but it pretty much ruins it for Hungarians, the audience this movie was intended for. It's difficult to understand how these blatant mistakes exist, while apparently the filmmakers took great care to arrange some miniscule details. For example the license plates of the cars all beginning with A to D, the letter in use during 1990's. I doubt, however, that even most Hungarians would know this. The effort is lost when we see completely out of place things and items, or see American movie clichés that are standing out like a sore thumb. I've just written more than 20 goof items, most of them anachronisms. In some cases they're so bad it literally hurts to watch.
The storyline is only loosely based on Ambrus' real story, and it's a very inaccurate depiction. This is where I have to take away at least four stars. They watered down the actual, quite intense story, as written by real life itself, to a simple, shallow series of robbery scenes. Literally 90% of the thrill is gone, and we get a mediocre film school thesis work instead. There was an excellent opportunity for a riveting climax if they just followed the real story. In reality the "Viszkis" committed several new robberies after he escaped, the police was mad, a manhunt was going on for months, but they couldn't catch him. The story of his arrests were also way more interesting in real life. The screenplay entirely skips these parts, we don't even see how was he caught for the second time. It just happens off-camera. No, I think I'll take away another star. I'm annoyed again just by typing this.
As for the acting, there's not much to speak of. We have a stereotypical detective, a shallow criminal with little character at all, some gal he's nailing, and some even blander supporting characters. Again this film school feeling, but this time the product is barely passing.
The result is an annoyingly bad movie which nobody can really enjoy. The only fun I had with it was to point out the mistakes and post them on this site. Even the real Whisky Bandit was really disappointed and said that it's not even close to his real story. Don't waste your time on it, either you're Hungarian or not.
The real disappointment is how many Hungarians are celebrating this movie as some masterpiece. Oh wow, a Hollywood movie about some Hungarian thing, gotta give it 11 stars! Why yes, if you're an average Eastern European prole who never saw anything better than painfully shitty soap operas on Hungarian commercial TVs, then 'The Whisky Bandit' will be an outstanding experience. But it's not because it's good - it's because you have the taste of a prole.
It's difficult to tell who was this movie made for. I imagine it was intended for a Hungarian audience, as hardly anyone outside our borders ever heard of Attila Ambrus or his shenanigans. After all, his story is hardly unique: a bank robber with a lot of luck, who was later captured, but escaped, then captured again and spent a lot of time in the slammer. Try telling this story at a party to non-Hungarians and they'll think you're tired.
The movie fails to capture the mystery of the real Whisky Bandit's story, which wasn't even really about the Whisky Bandit himself. He wasn't popular because Hungarians like criminals or bank robberies. His series of robberies revealed how impotent and corrupted Hungarian state authorities were. This might be very difficult to grasp for anyone who never lived in an Eastern European country, Nimród Antal included. Former Socialist states are still stuck in Soviet times when it comes to state administration. Authorities like the police are practically living on a legend of their invincibility and infallibility, while they're terribly underfunded, undermanned, corrupted and amateurish. Eastern Europeans perceive the police as an oppressive force, not a public service. When a cop walks up to you and asks for your ID, your stomach begins to sink. They aren't your friends, they don't serve you. They are bullies operating along odd policies that make little sense, often acting on a personal whim, frequently departed not only from the law, but reality and common sense. This is why common folk cheered the Whisky Bandit who made a fool of the police and revealed how worthless they were.
I have to give credit to the movie for one thing: it did attempt to capture this petty pursuit of power, so characteristic of law enforcement in Hungary. The scene where it's revealed that the detective is trying to push extra charges on Ambrus to compensate for his own failed life is very accurate and Eastern European. Indeed this is how they operate: if they can lay their hand on someone, they'll unleash their wrath and often make up excuses to completely destroy the suspect's life. Many and more people are in prison in Hungary who may have committed a crime, but not what they had been convicted for.
The scenes are full of serious anachronisms. There's almost always something out of picture: a car from a later era, a poster advertising a band that was only formed ten years later, objects and items alien from the time period. Locations are switched abruptly many times, and the characters take impossible routes around Budapest, jumping from one place to another. This may not be an issue for a foreigner watching the movie, but it pretty much ruins it for Hungarians, the audience this movie was intended for. It's difficult to understand how these blatant mistakes exist, while apparently the filmmakers took great care to arrange some miniscule details. For example the license plates of the cars all beginning with A to D, the letter in use during 1990's. I doubt, however, that even most Hungarians would know this. The effort is lost when we see completely out of place things and items, or see American movie clichés that are standing out like a sore thumb. I've just written more than 20 goof items, most of them anachronisms. In some cases they're so bad it literally hurts to watch.
The storyline is only loosely based on Ambrus' real story, and it's a very inaccurate depiction. This is where I have to take away at least four stars. They watered down the actual, quite intense story, as written by real life itself, to a simple, shallow series of robbery scenes. Literally 90% of the thrill is gone, and we get a mediocre film school thesis work instead. There was an excellent opportunity for a riveting climax if they just followed the real story. In reality the "Viszkis" committed several new robberies after he escaped, the police was mad, a manhunt was going on for months, but they couldn't catch him. The story of his arrests were also way more interesting in real life. The screenplay entirely skips these parts, we don't even see how was he caught for the second time. It just happens off-camera. No, I think I'll take away another star. I'm annoyed again just by typing this.
As for the acting, there's not much to speak of. We have a stereotypical detective, a shallow criminal with little character at all, some gal he's nailing, and some even blander supporting characters. Again this film school feeling, but this time the product is barely passing.
The result is an annoyingly bad movie which nobody can really enjoy. The only fun I had with it was to point out the mistakes and post them on this site. Even the real Whisky Bandit was really disappointed and said that it's not even close to his real story. Don't waste your time on it, either you're Hungarian or not.
The real disappointment is how many Hungarians are celebrating this movie as some masterpiece. Oh wow, a Hollywood movie about some Hungarian thing, gotta give it 11 stars! Why yes, if you're an average Eastern European prole who never saw anything better than painfully shitty soap operas on Hungarian commercial TVs, then 'The Whisky Bandit' will be an outstanding experience. But it's not because it's good - it's because you have the taste of a prole.