''Great Transport'' () is a 1983 Yugoslav

action Action may refer to: * Action (philosophy), something which is done by a person * Action principles the heart of fundamental physics * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video gam ...

–

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...

directed by

Veljko Bulajić Veljko Bulajić (22 March 1928 – 2 April 2024) was a Montenegrin film director and UNESCO Kalinga Prize recipient. Bulajić spent the majority of his life working in Croatia and is primarily known for directing World War II-themed movies from ...

. The film was selected as the Yugoslav entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the

56th Academy Awards The 56th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 1983 and took place on April 9, 1984, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, beginning at 6:00 p.m ...

, but was not accepted as a nominee. ''Great Transport'' stars

James Franciscus James Grover Franciscus (January 31, 1934 – July 8, 1991) was an American actor, known for his roles in feature films and in six television series: ''Mr. Novak'', ''Naked City (TV series), Naked City'', ''The Investigators (1961 TV series), T ...

Steve Railsback Steve Railsback (born November 16, 1945) is an American theatre, film, and television actor. He is best known for his performances in the films '' The Stunt Man'' and ''Lifeforce'', and his portrayal of Charles Manson in the 1976 television mini- ...

Robert Vaughn Robert Francis Vaughn (November 22, 1932 – November 11, 2016) was an American actor and political activist, whose career in film, television and theater spanned nearly six decades and who was best known for his role as secret agent Nap ...

Helmut Berger Helmut Berger (; ''né'' Steinberger; 29 May 1944 – 18 May 2023) was an Austrian actor, known for his portrayal of narcissistic and sexually ambiguous characters. He was one of the stars of European cinema in the late 1960s and 1970s, and is r ...

, and

Edward Albert Edward Laurence Albert (February 20, 1951 – September 22, 2006) was an American actor. The son of actor Eddie Albert and Mexican actress Margo, he starred opposite Goldie Hawn in ''Butterflies Are Free'' (1972), a role for which he won a ...

Plot

In May 1943,

Yugoslav Partisans The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian language, Macedonian, and Slovene language, Slovene: , officially the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska i partizanski odr ...

' HQ in

Vojvodina Vojvodina ( ; sr-Cyrl, Војводина, ), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an Autonomous administrative division, autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia, located in Central Europe. It lies withi ...

decides to send reinforcements to beleaguered Partisan units in eastern Bosnia. A convoy of more than a thousand volunteers carrying food, clothes and medicine, led by Pavle Paroški, embarks on a dangerous mission. They are joined by Paroški's girlfriend Dunja, doctor Emil Kovač, and British major Mason and his radio operator Danny, who are tasked with establishing the communications with the Partisans.

Cast

as John Mason *

as Pavle Paroški (voiced by Marko Nikolić) *

as Dr. Emil Kovač *

as Colonel Glassendorf *

as Danny *

Joseph Campanella Joseph Anthony Campanella (November 21, 1924 – May 16, 2018) was an American character actor. He appeared in more than 200 television and film roles from the early 1950s to 2009. Campanella was widely known for his roles as Joe Turino on ''Gu ...

as German Major (voiced by

Peter Carsten Peter Carsten (30 April 1928 – 20 April 2012) was a German actor and film producer. He appeared in 90 films between 1953 and 1999, including in supporting roles, ''Dark of the Sun'' (1968), ''Hannibal Brooks'' (1969), ''Madame Bovary (196 ...

) * Bata Zivojinovic as Kosta * Dragana Varagić as Dunja *

Zvonko Lepetić Zvonimir "Zvonko" Lepetić (17 November 1928 – 4 January 1991) was one of the leading character actors of Croatian and Yugoslav cinema and television. Lepetić was born in Berane, Montenegro. Since 1939, he lived in Sarajevo, where he graduated ...

as Baća * Ljiljana Blagojević as Dragana * Tihomir Arsić as Jocika * Dragomir Felba as Tima *

Dragan Bjelogrlić Dragan "Bjela" Bjelogrlić ( sr-Cyrl, Драган "Бјела" Бјелогрлић, ; born 10 October 1963) is a Serbian actor, director and producer. Career Bjelogrlić made his acting debut as a 15-year old, playing Sava Jovanović Sirogojn ...

as Bora * Dušan Janićijević as Commander Miloš

Release and reception

''Great Transport'' was released in Yugoslavian theatres on 5 July 1983. The film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

. Bulajić's attempt of emulating the epic scope of ''

Battle of Neretva Case White (), also known as the Fourth Enemy Offensive (), was a combined Axis strategic offensive launched against the Yugoslav Partisans throughout occupied Yugoslavia during World War II. It was one of the most significant confrontations o ...

'' (1969) did not find success with the critics, and was ignored by the audiences, who saw it as an anachronism, particularly in the times of economic adversity in Yugoslavia in the 1980s. Its failure marked the end of an era of epic Yugoslav

partisan film Partisan film ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, partizanski film, партизански филм, separator=" / ") is the name for a subgenre of war films made in Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In the broade ...

References

Sources

External links