Coming of Age
More than anything else, the overriding theme of Closely Watched Trains—as strange as it may seem—is the maturation of Miloš Hrma. He takes the job at the train station as a young apprentice and is engaged by the Nazis to closely watch the trains for signs of espionage. Instead, however, he spends most of his time closely watching the various attractive females moving in and out of the train station and his life. One failed sexual escape results in a suicide attempt and another successful sexual escapade precedes a genuinely heroic action .The linkage of sexual prowess with heroism is another theme at work, but it is essential to the coming of age of Miloš Hrma who them promptly dies at the hands of Nazi gunners.
Performance Anxiety
The film is obsessed with sex, but at the core is the connection between masculinity and sexual performance. Miloš clearly connects sexual performance with being a man—which is especially a big deal for a virginal boy—and so when his first attempt at sexual congress is cut short by premature ejaculation, it becomes such a big deal that he attempts to take his own life. The connection here is really one about being able to perform sexually as it relates to being to perform all the other expectations of a male. Failure at one naturally leads to expectations of failure of the others.
The Stupidity of War
Call it what you want: war, on the basis of much modern art, is without question the most incredibly stupid and anti-evolutionary of all of humankind’s inventions. The film, remember, is obsessed with sexuality; sexuality is biologically necessary only for procreation. In other words, take away all the pleasure that that sex brings and it still serves just one vital purpose which is the propagation of the species. The obsession of Miloš with sexual prowess, masculinity and performance all points to a desire to propagate his gene pool lying just beneath his desire to experience erotic pleasure. Once he manages to successfully accomplish this task, he also takes on those expectations of masculinity in the form of trying to protect his village from the ravages of Nazi evil. Success brings a high price: he pays with his life. Thus proving that all the desire to realize the erotic and procreative pleasure of sexuality can be extinguished in an instant when caught in the crosshairs of the stupidity of war.
