I'm aware that the portrayal of the Turks in the film is very negative and read an explanation of why this is on the IMDb that helped me understand the perspective of the author of the poem the film is based on, and Jankovics the director of the film, a lot better. I don't agree with their views but the tendency among some on the left to just sweep such things under the rug in favour of a very simplistic message is not helping these things either IMO.
János vitéz (1973) - Top questions and answers about János vitéz (1973)
www.imdb.com
"The original author of the János vitéz poem Sándor Petöfi and film director Marcell Jankovics were both very nationalistic, passionate Hungarians. Beginning from the 1200s, the Tartars (actually Mongols) repeatedly invaded Hungary, pillaging, raping and slaughtering Hungarians en masse. Historical estimates claim somewhere between a third and half of all Hungarians were killed during these invasions.
Following the 1500s, after decades of hard-fought wars, the Turkish have also invaded and occupied the country for nearly a century and a half, which Hungarians still consider a painful part of history to this day. The deep animosity against Turkish invaders was even immortalized in Hungary's National Anthem, as well as famous literary works like the novel Crescent Moon (Egri Csillagok) and the poem John the Valiant (János Vitéz), on which this film was based. Jankovics has been especially outspoken of his belief that Islamism has no place in Europe, though this has not stopped him from respecting their own cultural heritage and even contributing to the Hungarian release of Turkish literature with his illustrations. In his final years, he has been a critic of EU migration laws and argued in favor of cultural separation.
Petöfi lived under the Habsburg Empire's oppression and eventually lost his life in the failed war for freedom of 1848-49. His poem was deliberately written to "boost the spirit" of his Hungarian readers, as the nation had harbored centuries of resentment against their former enemies such as the Mongols and Turks. The poem is highly nationalistic but also a complete work of fiction, with chivalrous Hungarian hussars defending France from Turkish invaders, something that had no basis in real history. On their way from Hungary to France, the hussars also come across evil, half-human, half-dog Mongols, but a Saracen king comes to their rescue. By showing Hungary's army holding its own and even beating his nation's former enemies, Petöfi's poem gave a sort of catharsis to its readers, struggling under Habsburg rule and its censorship.
In a similar vein, Jankovics lived under strict communist oppression and the regime had targeted his family personally. The movie accentuates the negative portrayal of the Turks and Mongols compared to the original poem and shows the Hungarian hussars in an even more positive light. Notably, the Saracen king doesn't appear in the film, the Hungarians outwit the dog-men Mongols by themselves. Similar to the poem, the film was also partially meant to serve as a nationalistic "boost" to its Hungarian audience who had still felt the pain of centuries of defeat, mistreatment and cultural destruction. By the time of the film's creation, Hungary has been weakened and beaten not only by the Habsburg monarchy but also the victors of both World Wars, and was under Soviet oppression. This might account for why the film is even more nationalistic than the poem and why it shows the Turks and Mongols in such an extremely negative light.
Both Petöfi and Jankovics had felt that Hungarians needed to see their nation win against their age-old adversaries, even if only in fiction. Censorship forbade them from criticizing their current oppressors, so the enemies of the past had to play these villainous roles against the film's and poem's fictional Hungarian hussar army. Even in the 21st century, there is still much resentment among Hungarians toward other nations and cultures who have slighted them, after their country has been on the losing end of many conflicts and got constantly invaded and occupied by various outside forces ever since the 800s. Many Hungarians still see the exaggerated ("racist") portrayals seen in the film as justified and traditional elements of their literature and art."
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