The Day That Shook the World is a 1975 film directed by Veljko Bulajić.
It is a dramatization of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, and his wife Sophie, in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914—the moment that triggered World War I. Franz Ferdinand (Christopher Plummer) is the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but he is disliked by his uncle, Emperor Franz Joseph, who has held the throne for 66 long years. One of the reasons that Franz Joseph dislikes his nephew is that Sophie, Franz Ferdinand's wife (Florinda Bolkan) is not high-born enough to be a queen. In fact, Franz Joseph has barred her from ever being Empress. The old emperor doesn't like it, but heir Franz Ferdinand is, so off the heir goes on a tour of the empire's eastern possessions in June 1914.
The outermost of those possessions is Bosnia, once a province of the Ottoman Empire that was wrested from the Ottomans by war and annexed by Austria in 1908. The Slavs of the Balkan Peninsula aren't very happy about this. A group of Serbian and Bosnian terrorists, which include a young Serb student named Gavrilo Princip, have been training to assassinate the Archduke in order to foment a revolution that will free Bosnia. Bearing pistols and bombs, they sneak across the border and make their way to Sarajevo and a date with destiny.
Maximilian Schell plays Šarac, a Serbian operative with the Black Hand who trains Princip and the others and sends them into Bosnia.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Attractiveness: The real Gavrilo Princip was short, scrawny, and tubercular. Actor Irfan Mensur is boyishly handsome.
- Artistic License – History: Little, as the film sticks with events pretty well.
- The Archduke himself catches the bomb thrown by Cabrinovic and throws it away. By all historical accounts the bomb actually bounced off the rear fender of the car.
- Sophie dies sitting up in the back seat, when in actuality she slid off the seat and crumpled to the floor beneath the seat.
- The Cassandra: Emperor Franz Joseph himself spells out exactly what is going to happen: Russia will dive in to any Balkan war in which Austria attacks Serbia, leading Germany and Russia to declare war against each other, France to come in with their ally Russia, and Britain to come in with their ally France. Conrad, who is thirsty for a Serbian war, blows him off.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Šarac gets arrested by Austrian police and is brutally tortured for the names of his contacts. He dies on the rack.
- Dramatic Irony: Cabrinovic is in a crowd on the parade route when the hot babe he met on the train comes up and embraces him. He gets rid of her by saying "I'm waiting for someone," and she stalks off. He's waiting for the Archduke, to kill him.
- Fan Disservice: The wrinkled, flabby butt of Emperor Franz Joseph, as he is being changed by one of his attendants after getting out of bed.
- Fingore: Among the things the Austrian police do to torture Šarac is sticking pins under his fingernails.
- The Grand Hunt: Franz Ferdinand and Sophie are introduced hunting on one of their estates, complete with servants in the lead to flush out the game. It's an ironic contrast since they are also being hunted, as shown in the first scene where Princip and the others are practicing how to kill them.
- Grenade Hot Potato: Franz Ferdinand catches the bomb that Cabrinovic throws and flings it away. It lands under the car behind them and explodes, injuring several people.
- Happily Married: Franz Ferdinand and Sophie are still deeply in love with each other. Ferdinand is highly offended when his uncle refuses to send Sophie along with him in the royal possession. In Sarajevo, a courtier thinks Sophie will ride in a car behind the Archduke but he insists that his wife ride with him, which gets her killed.
- Held Gaze: The movie may be pushing things a little when it shows Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who is out and about in Sarajevo, holding a long gaze with Gavrilo Princip, the man who will kill him the next day.
- High-Class Glass: Baron Conrad, a warmongering idiot who is wrong about everything, wears such a glass as he's talking nonsense to Franz Joseph about how the Serbs will be a pushover.
- Hypocrite: Franz Joseph says that he so dislikes his nephew that he wants to live forever just so that Ferdinand will never rule. Then when Ferdinand enters, Franz Joseph greets him with "My dearest nephew!"
- It Will Never Catch On:
- When Franz Joseph says that France might come to Russia's aid if Russia were to intervene in a Balkan war, Baron Conrad the fool says "She wouldn't dare!"
- Franz Ferdinand, watching maneuvers, thinks that war with Serbia might be tough. Conrad (wrong again) and Potiorek disagree, saying that Serbia would be a pushover and they'd be in Belgrade in two days. When Austria actually did invade Serbia several weeks later, it was a fiasco in which the Serbs flung the Austrian army completely out of their country and back into Austria.note
- Match Cut: Cabrinovic decides to dress up in a suit and get his picture taken on the day of the assassination. The bang of the photographer's flash cuts to the blast of a ceremonial cannon being fired off to salute Franz Ferdinand.
- Mustache Vandalism: Some youths scribble a great bushy mustache and beard on a poster of Franz Ferdinand.
- Narrator: Heard only briefly at the beginning, to explain the strategic situation in Europe in mid-1914, and at the end, to confirm that Franz Ferdinand and Sophie both died.
- Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: The very first scene of the movie is a pistol pointing directly at the camera and firing. It's the assassins, taking target practice at a poster of Franz Ferdinand.
- Spiteful Spit: Šarac spits in the face of the Austrian policeman who is trying to get him to spill the beans about what he is up to in Sarajevo.
- Time-Passes Montage: A montage of stills and brief clips shows Franz Ferdinand's journey across the empire, from Vienna through various stops and ending in Sarajevo.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: A montage at the end relates the fate of the conspirators. Muhamed Mehmedbašić escaped to Montenegro but all the others were either hanged (the older conspirators) or died in prison (the younger ones, like Princip who died of TB in 1918).
- While You Were in Diapers: The Black Hand has second thoughts and decides to call the operation off after a Serbian officer tells Ilic that they are not at all ready for war with Austria. Šarac finds the gang in Sarajevo and delivers this message but Princip refuses and suggests that Šarac has lost his nerve. Šarac does not like that at all, saying "I was fighting Austria when you were still in diapers!"
