Enemy Is at the Wheel

Prague taxi service chief Mudroch (Miloš Willig) has no time for the irrational demands of his drivers for a pay rise. The drivers decide to strike and seek the support of the trade unions and “enemies of the state” in their fight against Murdoch. But the taxi firm boss is convinced that such an honest communist as himself cannot be overcome. Then saboteurs interfere with the brakes of his car… This 1974 drama made by a very old hand of filmmaking, Karel Steklý, amounts to a criticism of opponents of the contemporary regime. They are represented as indulging in dishonest intrigues in preparation for the 1968 disruption of the established political order. It is a forcible example of post-1968 “normalisation” cinema which makes use of many ideological clichés. The motion picture propagandistically presents honest comrades, corrupted long-haired citizens, taxi drivers who have no appetite for work and wicked emigrants stealing the wives of true communists. Today, the film might come across as an unintended comedy, but in its day, it clearly reflected the new doctrine of “normalisation” being pushed by the state.