AllMovie

One of Jan Svankmajer's earlier film shorts, Punch and Judy should actually be named "Punch and Joey," as the male harlequin-esque character Joey is quite different from Punch's wife, Judy. Whatever its name, Punch is a highly effective surrealistic short about greed, obsession, and conflict on one level and about the Cold War and the policy of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) on the other. The former level will resonate more fully with modern audiences, especially given Svankmajer's blackly brutal representation herein. In a brief ten minutes, Svankmajer adroitly sets up a conflict over ownership/exploitation of a guinea pig and causes the conflict to escalate ridiculously and exponentially until the warriors are -- literally -- beaten to a pulp. The use of puppets -- and the showing of the puppeteer's hands at the beginning and end -- serves to introduce an element of artifice and artificiality that is distancing yet also makes the ending more chilling. As usual, the designs that the creator comes up with are visually stunning, beautiful characters and settings that have been defiled by decay. In Punch, Svankmajer also reveals himself an absolute master of editing, with incredibly timed cuts that create a dazzlingly disorienting effect. Punch is a dark, fascinating piece, a very adult variation on a bizarre-to-begin-with children's story.