65, 66 och jag

I recently attended an exhibition of European films from several nations, in various languages. This film grabbed my attention in the programme listing because of its unusual numeric title: in Swedish, '65, 66 and Me'. I assumed that it would be a movie about convicts, or just possibly robots ... at any rate, the characters would have serial numbers. Intrigued, I attended the film.

I was only mildly impressed. It turns out to be a service comedy: rather the Swedish equivalent of 'Buck Privates' or 'Carry On, Sergeant'. Petrus (#65), Pelle (#66) and Karl-Alfred (#67) are all yokels conscripted into the same platoon of the Swedish army. Because they have consecutive serial numbers, they are always together in close formation on parade, they bunk alongside one another, they mess together, and so forth. They become friends, and then start collaborating in practical jokes and rowdy antics.

Most of this allegedly 'army' comedy is actually concerned with the adventures of our lads on a furlough. Fair enough; a lot of American and British comedies with military themes took this same tack. Our three Swedish meatballs take their back pay and go to town on a spree. They latch onto some blonde flickas in cute dirndls. This movie reminds me of 'On the Town': it's similar in mood and subject matter, without being nearly so well-paced nor so disciplined. I also didn't find this comedy to be very funny. Maybe that's down to my difficulties with the Swedish language, but perhaps not: even the slapstick and visual humour didn't quite work for me here. I'll rate this move 3 points out of 10.