History Film / CKDezerterzy

* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: [[spoiler: Baldini and Von Nogay's mistress in her PetTheDog moment. Turns out one of many secret talents of the Italian is being really good in bed.]]

''C.K. Dezerterzy'' is a 1985 Polish comedy by Janusz Majewski, [[FilmOfTheBook based on]] a comparably less well known 1937 book by Kazimierz Sejda. It tells a story of four [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic soldiers of the K.u.K. Army]]: a Pole Jan Kaniowski (named Stefan Kania in the novel), an Austrian Jew Moritz Haber (named Isidore in the novel), a Hungarian Lajos Benedek (named Lajos Szokolon in the novel) and a Czech [[LastNameBasis Hudej]] (or an Ukrainian named Ivan Hladun in the novel), who, along with an Italian POW Baldini, decide to go AWOL after a disastrous inspection of their unit by an [[InsaneAdmiral Insane General]] that lands all of them in jail.

* PornStache: Szokolon/Benedek. He [[BeardlessProtectionProgram refuses to shave it]] after drunkenly destroying a lady's hat in the cinema while on the run.

* FilmOfTheBook
* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: [[spoiler: Baldini and Von Nogay's mistress in her PetTheDog moment. Turns out one of many secret talents of the Italian is being really good in bed]].

* TheImmodestOrgasm: The film ''opens'' with one. [[spoiler: Later, Von Nogay's mistress scream is cut in half after she gets busy with Baldini]].

* NotInFrontOfTheParrot: PlayedWith. While Von Nogay trained his parrot to repeat different patriotic sentences after she is given pepper, Baldini managed to train the bird into saying anti-Germanic ones. The trick? Von Nogay always gives the pepper with his right arm, so his aide used the left one. [[ChekhovsGun This is important later on]].

** PromotionNotPunishment: It turns out that the counterintelligence officer took it as an attempt at [[BluffTheImpostor Bluffing The Impostor]] and Kania gets a medal instead.

[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ck_dezerterzy.png]][[caption-width-right:320:Clockwise from top left: Kania, Haber and Benedek."]]

[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ck_dezerterzy.png]]

* StrollingThroughTheChaos: In the ending, when the guard platoon runs away like hell, chased by the joyful former soldiers, captain Wagner calmly walks through the chaos smoking a cigar.

* VehicleVanish: The protagonists pull one off in Budapest, hiding in the incoming tram.

* PatrioticFervor: Second most important characteristic of Von Nogay, after being [[TheNeidermeyer a tyrant in uniform]]. He tries and fails miserably to invoke it in his soldiers, mostly because there is not a single Austrian in the entire company and the action takes place in the final days of [[TheSoundOfMartialMusic Austro-Hungarian Empire]].

* BavarianFireDrill: Sergeant Zajicek and his "mission" - he's traveling to deliver a medal to an officer who is an InventedIndividual. Works well enough to keep people fooled for two years.

* VastBureaucracy: The main characters meet a soldier who is travelling all around Austro-Hungarian Empire, visiting hospitals in search for a war hero, carrying a high decoration for him. Except - he's actually a deserter who bought the medal, ''[[InventedIndividual invented the guy]]'' and forged the original orders to find him, but nobody can figure it out due to the sheer size of the imperial bureaucracy. More, each time he leaves a hospital, he earns a new, legal travel dispatch. He's been running this scam for ''two years''.

!!This work contains examples of the following tropes:

[[folder: Tropes common for the film and the book]]

[[/folder]]
[[folder: Book-Only Tropes]]

[[/folder]]
[[folder: Film-Only Tropes]]

* VehicleVanish: The protagonists pull one off in Budapest, hiding in the incoming tram.
[[/folder]]

''C.K. Dezerterzy'' is a 1985 Polish comedy by Janusz Majewski, [[FilmOfTheBook based on]] a comparably less well known 1937 book by Kazimierz Sejda. It tells a story of four [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic soldiers of the K.u.K. Army]]: Pole Jan Kaniowski (named Stefan Kania in the novel), Austrian Jew Moritz Haber (named Isidore in the novel), Hungarian Lajos Benedek (named Lajos Szokolon in the novel) and Czech [[LastNameBasis Hudej]] (an Ukrainian named Ivan Hladun in the novel), who, along with an Italian POW Baldini, decide to go AWOL after a disastrous inspection of their unit by an [[InsaneAdmiral Insane General]] that lands all of them in jail.

* AFatherToHisMen: The Captain. He explicitly forbids von Nogay from any attempts at brutality and warns him that the soldiers, as undisciplined they may seem, are incredibly smart and that is the reason why he respects them.

* TheInquisitorGeneral: General von Grabenau. Kania and his friends do everything to make the company leaders look bad when he arrives.

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The entire Eleventh Guards Company, and especially the four protagonists.

* SoldiersAtTheRear: The Eleventh Guards Company of Satoraljaujhely. The novel explicitly states that it's composed of "politically suspicious" soldiers reassigned there mainly to stop them from stirring trouble on the frontlines.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: the captain gives one to Von Nogay.
--> '''Cpt. Wagner:''' There are no words in the vocabulary of a cultured man that could be used to describe your actions disgustingly enough. (...) You are not fit for even a court of cannibals, you bushman. You are nothing but a pitiful worm, called a human only by mistake, mister oberleutnant von Nogay. Get out of here, because I'm sick of looking at you, you bastard."

* TheAlcoholic: Captain Zivancić and von Nogay's predecessor, Oberleutnant Giser (who is absent from the movie).
* AllThereInTheManual: The novel explains some things better than they're shown in the movie.

** [[RaceLift Nationality Lift]]: The company captain, Zivancić (Croatian), becomes Austrian named Wagner in the film; the [[LaResistance Ukrainian independence activist]], Hladun, becomes a Czech printer Hudej in the film, excising a whole important PlotPoint regarding his reason for desertion.
* TheAlcoholic: While on duty, he's sober or appears to be, but when only having any free moment, Von Nogay is instantly and constantly piss-drunk.

** Von Nogay is [[spoiler: hanged neck-deep in shit in public restroom]] for his bullying and how he keeps beating helpless Baldini.
** Ulmbach, the too eager for his own good Corporal, ends up in an asylum after being framed for going mental and apparently attacking Benedek with a knife.

** The soldiers passively sit during the lesson of national anthem. But when Corporal Ulmbach smacks apparently retarded Hudej in the face and throws him out of the room, ''entire company'' stands against his harrasment, ''including'' fellow Corporal Bernstein. Keep in mind that technically they've started a mutinity and beat their [=NCO=], with other [=NCO=] standing on their side.
** Captain Wagner is the OnlySaneMan from entire ranked personel shown in the film. He makes it very clear how Von Nogay [[ReassignedToAntarctica will]] [[WarIsHell end]] if he keeps bullying the soldiers.
* EyepatchOFPower: The officer in charge of small German detatchment sent to pacify the garrison is wearing one to further enhance his image as battle-hardened veteran.
* AFatherToHisMen: Captain Wagner, who has only one thing in mind - spend the entire war as far away from combat as possible and saving his company from the meanigless death in some forgotten trench. Thus he treats his duty as garrison commander in the middle of nowhere as a privilidge and not as a punishment.

* GreedyJew: ZigZagged with Moryc. He has all the ''positive'' elements of the stereotypical Jewish merchant, but not a single bad one. It's even jokingly referred as "Creed: Merchant" when filling military forms.
* HumiliationConga: Von Nogay suffers a continous one ever since being hanged in a public toilet. Not only he has to prove to {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s he's not insane, but right after leaving the mental hospital, he comes back in the middle of a surprise inspection. And Kania already set up everything to go wrong during it, with entire blame to be put on Von Nogay. The humiliation reaches the peak when his own parrot starts to repeating anti-Germanic sentences in front of the general. He almost has a heart attack at this point.
* InkblotTest: When von Nogay is put under psychiatric observation after the protagonists kidnap him and lock him in a latrine, he is shown a picture of a hen after being interrogated by a trio of {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s. After being repeatedly asked if he's sure that it's a hen, he angrily makes a hilarious FreudianSlip:

* TheImmodestOrgasm: The film ''opens'' with one. [[spoiler: Later, Von Nogay's mistress scream is cut in half after she get busy with Baldini]].

* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight: After being chewed in the most humiliating fashion by Captain Wagner, Von Nogay is so enraged he instinctively grabs for his sabre. Wagner, who apparently was expecting such reaction, already opened a drawer few seconds earlier and now is casually pointing his pistol at the Oberleutnant, right down to DramaticGunCock. Von Nogay instantly freezes mid-step and calms down.

* OhCrap: When Kania & co. realise they've [[spoiler: accidently tried to extort a counter-intelligence officer. To everyone surprise, Kania is awarded a medal for his model behaviour on duty and awarness as patrol commander]].

* ProfessionalGambler: Baldini is revealed as an expert card player, able to win the entire jackpot without cheating, marks and card counting. All while his opponents are clearly cheating.
* RareGuns: Captain Wagner uses Steyr M1912 pistol, [[ShownTheirWork historically accurate]] service pistol of Austro-Hungarian Army.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: As a check to Von Nogay's [[TheNeidermeyer Neidermeyer]] tendencies, Captain Wagner is calm and humane officer who is mostly interested in well-being of himself and his company. As long as things run without brutalisation and bullying, everything else is allowed.
* RevengeByProxy: While Baldini is a [=POW=] and Kania barely knows him, he eagerly punish Von Nogay for the constant beating and bullying of the Italian by [[spoiler: hanging Von Nogay on a rope inside of a public toiler]], in the process also avenging entire company. In the next scene we see him, Von Nogay [[spoiler: is in an asylum and the doctors jokingly talk about his crazy story]].

* Steel Eardrums: One of the hookers shoot a rifle inside small bathroom, with Benedek sitting right behind her. She only laughs and he ''jokes'' about being deaf now.
* StrollingThroughTheChaos: In the ending, when the guard platoon runs away like hell, chased by the joyful former soldiers, captain Wagner calmly walks among them smoking a cigar.
* TalkToTheFist: When Corporal Ulmbach furiously starts approaching Kania just to indimidate him with his rank and put him in his place, Kania punches him so hard Ulmbach [[BlownAcrossTheRoom is thrown on the nearest table]].
* ThreatBackfire: When Kania and co. attempt to extort money from a man they accuse of having false ID, he turns out to be a counterintelligence officer. Cue MassOhCrap.

* TooDumbToLive: Ulmbach, who is overconfident about his authority as a corporal while antagonising ''entire company'' against him, including other corporal. All while not having a single witness that could save him.

* TranslationConvention: Most of the dialogues are supposed to be in German, but the only character not speaking Polish are the parrot and the lady from Budapest talking in Hungarian.
* VastBureaucracy: The main characters meet a soldier who is travelling all around Austro-Hungarian Empire, visiting hospitals in search for a war hero, carrying a high decoration for him. Thing is - he a deserted who bought the medal, ''invented the guy'' and forged the original orders to find him, but nobody can figure it out due to the sheer size of the imperial bureaucracy. More, each time he leaves a hospital, he earns a new, legal travel dispatch. He's running the scam for ''two years''.
* VehicleVanish: The protagonists pull it off in Budapest, hiding in an incoming tram.

* VastBureaucracy: The main characters meet a soldier who is travelling all around Austro-Hungarian Empire, visiting hospitals in search for a war hero, carrying a high decoration for him. Thing is - he a deserted who bought the medal, ''invented the guy'' and forged the original orders to find him, but nobody can figure it out due to the sheer size of the imperial bureaucracy. More, each time he leaves a hostpital, he earns a new, legal travell dispatch. He's running the scam for ''two years''.

* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight: After being chewed in the most humiliating fashion by Captain Wagner, Von Nogay is so enraged he instinctively grabs for his sabre. Wagner, who apparently was expecting such reaction, already opened a drawer few seconds earlier and now casually pointing his pistol at the Oberleutnant, right down to DramaticGunCock. Von Nogay instantly freezes mid-step.

* NiceGuy: Baldini, especially in the film, which makes the humiliation and beating he must take as Von Nogay's aide even harsher.

* AccidentalHero: Kania & co. are regularly stopping random people during patrols, check their [=ID=] and then pretend they've just caught a spy with false documents, just to extort their victims for not sending them into nearest police station for further investigation. [[spoiler: At one occassion they've stopped a counter-intelligence officer who was checking how efficient local garrison is with false documents. For his by-the-book procedure and "extreme efficiency" Kania is awarded a high decoration]].

** Captain Wagner is not only TheOnlySaneMan from ranked personel, but he makes it very clear how Von Nogay [[ReassignedToAntarctica will]] [[WarIsHell end]] if he keeps bullying the soldiers.

** Ulmbach, the too eager for his own good Corporal, [[ends up in an asylum]] after being framed for being mental and attacking Benedek with a knife.

* BittersweetEnding: Instead of arriving at an unnamed camp where the paperwork went up in flames and taking the advantage of VastBureaucracy to wait for the end of the war, Kania and co. are captured and hauled back to Satoraljaujhely just in time for the war to end.

[[folder: Common tropes for the film and the book]]
* BavarianFireDrill: sergeant Zajicek and his "mission" - he's traveling to deliver a medal to an officer who is an InventedIndividual. Works well enough to keep people fooled for two years.

* AFatherToHisMen: the Captain. He explicitly forbids von Nogay from any attempts at brutality and warns him that the soldiers, as undisciplined they may seem, are incredibly smart and that is the reason why he respects them.

* GratuitousGerman: the military commands are often given in German. The novel includes translation in parentheses, in the movie you can figure them out from the context.

* PollyWantsAMicrophone: von Nogay's parrot. Baldini and Kania train her to spout anti-Austrian slogans on command, and use that during the inspection.

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: the entire Eleventh Guards Company, and especially the four protagonists.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: upon learning of the upcoming inspection, the Captain takes a leave.
* SoldiersAtTheRear: the Eleventh Guards Company of Satoraljaujhely. The novel explicitly states that it's composed of "politically suspicious" soldiers reassigned there mainly to stop them from stirring trouble on the frontlines.

* ToiletHumour: a poop joke is the reason why Kania wound up in Satoraljaujhely.

* AllThereInTheManual: the novel explains some things better than they're shown in the movie.

* AdaptationNameChange: most named characters, with the exception of Oberleutnant von Nogay and Baldini.
** [[RaceLift Nationality Lift]]: the company captain, Zivancić (Croatian), becomes Austrian named Wagner in the film; the [[LaResistance Ukrainian independence activist]], Hladun, becomes a Czech printer Hudej in the film, excising a whole important PlotPoint regarding his reason for desertion.

* BittersweetEnding: instead of arriving at an unnamed camp where the paperwork went up in flames and taking the advantage of VastBureaucracy to wait for the end of the war, Kania and co. are captured and hauled back to Satoraljaujhely just in time for the war to end.
* EvilLaugh: von Nogay's parrot, when being hauled off to jail along with her master. Also, the gendarme who captures the protagonists.

* InkblotTest: when von Nogay is put under psychiatric observation after the protagonists kidnap him and lock him in a latrine, he is shown a picture of a hen after being interrogated by a trio of {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s. After being repeatedly asked if he's sure that it's a hen, he angrily makes a hilarious FreudianSlip:

* NoNameGiven: the film doesn't mention the general's name.
* SexyDiscretionShot: the film opens with one, with Kania and his girlfriend Mitzi having sex under the bed. What is shown is the mattress bouncing, and close-ups of dolls laying on the bed.
* StrollingThroughTheChaos: in the ending, when the guard platoon runs away like hell, chased by the joyful former soldiers, captain Wagner calmly walks among them smoking a cigar.
* ThreatBackfire: when Kania and co. attempt to extort money from a man they accuse of having false ID, he turns out to be a counterintelligence officer. Cue MassOhCrap.
** PromotionNotPunishment: it turns out that the counterintelligence officer took it as an attempt at [[BluffTheImpostor Bluffing The Impostor]] and Kania gets a medal instead.
* VehicleVanish: the protagonists pull it off in Budapest, hiding in an incoming tram.

* InsaneAdmiral: General von Grabenau, particularly in the novel where he is nicknamed "The Loony Grabenau".

* EvilLaugh: von Nogay's parrot, when being hauled off to jail along with her master.

** [[RaceLift Nationality Lift]]: the company captain, Zivancić (ambiguously Balkan), becomes Austrian named Wagner in the film; the [[LaResistance Ukrainian independence activist]], Hladun, becomes a Czech printer Hudej in the film, excising a whole important PlotPoint regarding his reason for desertion.

* InkblotTest: when von Nogay is put under psychiatric observation after the protagonists kidnap him and lock him in a latrine, he is shown a picture of a hen after being grilled by a trio of {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s. After being repeatedly asked if he's sure that it's a hen, he angrily makes a hilarious FreudianSlip:

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: the captain gives one to Von Nogay.
--> '''Cpt. Wagner:''' There are no words in the vocabulary of a cultured man that could be used to describe your actions disgustingly enough. (...) You are not fit for even a court of cannibals, you bushman. You are nothing but a pitiful worm, called a human only by mistake, mister oberleutnant von Nogay. Get out of here, because I'm sick of looking at you, you bastard."

* AdaptationDisplacement: the film is much more well-known than the book it's based on.
* AdaptationNameChange: most named characters, with the exception of Oberleutnant von Nogay and Baldini.
** [[RaceLift Nationality Lift]]: the company captain, Zivancić (ambiguously Balkan), becomes Austrian named Wagner in the film; the [[LaResistance Ukrainian independence activist]], Hladun, becomes a Czech printer Hudej in the film, excising a whole important PlotPoint regarding his reason for desertion.
* AuthorAvatar: Kania in the novel, and the [[WordOfGod author states as much]] in the foreword.

* {{Fauxreigner}}: In the novel, Benedek and Baldini pretend to be Bosnian Muslims at one point.
* FilmOfTheBook

* NoNameGiven: the film doesn't mention the general's name.

* TheScrounger: Kania in the novel.
* SoldiersAtTheRear: the Eleventh Guards Company of Satoraljaujhely. The novel explicitly states that it's composed of "politically suspicious" soldiers reassigned there mainly to stop them from stirring trouble on the frontlines.

* Fauxreigner: In the novel, Benedek and Baldini pretend to be Bosnian Muslims at one point.