Soldier of Orange (1979)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Wonderful character development!

The Worst Film Ever

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Paul Verhoeven's signature ironic detachment from the graphic violence in his work has reasonably been attributed to his experiences as a young Dutch child during the Nazi Occupation. What I've always admired about him has been his use of sardonic indifference with films like RoboCop, Starship Troopers and Spetters, but with Soldier of Orange, there doesn't seem to be anything discerning his vision from that of other war film directors who've had less or no eyewitness or everyday experience with war. Though thankfully it is not without unabashed Dutchness---the Queen is anything but strict with her loyal underlings' sense of manners, sex and exhibitionist affection is in no way taboo in any presented dynamic, and Rutger Hauer's response to his sometime lover spitting beer in his face is "I love you"---its framework is, in a sense, American. It is a spy thriller that begins and ends like a coming-of-age film about a circle of aloof, airy friends, some of whom make it to the end and some of whom don't.In some way, upon reflection, I can see how this early effort by Verhoeven, and his two regular pre-U.S. stars Hauer and Jeroen Krabbe, benefits from its incongruous lack of involvement. It is the story of people who don't understand the import of what is truly happening until it literally hits home and find that loyalty grows to be more and more of an illusion. Thus, it seems to aesthetically make a degree of sense for the story to unfold at arm's length, as if we can never quite know who will live, die or turn on us. But still, wouldn't this film be so much better if it did not keep its distance? Isn't it the point for us to feel betrayed and angered by the unraveling of events? In any case, I could still be wrong, as the cliché love triangles, token romantic interests and ignored moral dichotomies of seemingly incidental things certain characters do abound.Perhaps Verhoeven was not yet ready to make the Dutch Resistance film he knew he should make. His filmography can often look like the work of someone who is cynically desensitized to violence and other sorts of cruelty, but it can also often look like the work of someone's defense mechanism against how it has affected him. It wasn't until 2006 when Black Book was released when we saw his true and personal vision of a story set during this time. We have authentic emotional reactions to everything that happens in that tremendous film, which as it turns out is surely Verhoeven's best work, as if his previous films had all been his way of wrestling with the feelings with which he had to come to terms in order to make it, just as the Dutch in this film seem to remain aloof, perhaps in quiet, ambiguous defense of what could happen to them at any moment.

When I talked to Erik Hazelhoff (1917) today, he was staying in De Hoefslag, one of the more remarkable dutch hotels. A man who has sucked the marrow out of life; a student writer warrior and bon-vivant who has retired to Maui, Hawaii. He remains today one of a handful of surviving bearers of the Dutch equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor and Victoria Cross, the so-called Military Willemsorde (MWO). With seventy two pathfinder sorties over Europe, multiple warship droppings on the machine gun patrolled dutch beaches, he is a lucky man to have survived the Second World War. The movie is fresh, candid like the man himself. It shows the When I talked to Erik Hazelhoff (1917) today, he was staying in De Hoefslag, one of the more remarkable dutch hotels. A man who has sucked the marrow out of life; a student writer warrior and bon vivant who has retired to Maui, Hawaii. He remains today one of a handful of surviving bearers of the Dutch equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor and Victoria Cross, the so-called Military Willemsorde (MWO). With seventy two pathfinder sorties over Europe, multiple warship droppings on the machine gun patrolled dutch beaches, he is a lucky man to have survived the Second World War. The movie is fresh, candid like the man himself. It shows the naiveté with which the Dutch resistance operated as well as its heroism. It shows Germans sometimes as soldiers, sometimes as murderers. It shows "wrong" Dutch as patriotically volunteering SS-soldiers. The best and the worst and everything in between. Is shows the Second World War as it was for everybody of his generation: the biggest event of their lives. Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema rose to the event and this movie with its captivating theme has enshrined it during his lifetime.

This is Paul Verhoeven's best Dutch film. Do not get me wrong I still like Turkish Delight, Katie Tippal, Spetters, and The Fourth Man. I like the music. This is truly an epic film. Rutger Hauer stars in this film and the other Dutch films directed by Paul Verhoeven he starred in are Turkish Delight, Katie Tippal, and Spetters. In Soldier of Orange first you see Rutger Hauer with a shaved head. Plus this movie is about of course soldiers. The first time I saw this movie I did not like it but then it grew on me. The first Dutch film by Paul Verhoeven I saw was Spetters. This movie is 10 times better than Spetters. Jerome Krabbe also stars in this film and the other Dutch films directed by Paul Verhoeven he starred in was Spetters and of course The 4th Man. The first time I saw Jerome Krabbe was in The Fugitive.

Soldaat van Oranje is Paul Verhoeven's war movie, one that already shows his early leaning towards grungy realism - graphic torture, debased human nature and plenty of bare boobies - which is why it had a pretty mixed reception when it came out here in Holland. This story is told from the point of view of a number of well to do Leiden University students. For clarification, very few people before the war had the finances to go to university. Highlighting some now internationally famous Dutch actors - Rutger Hauer, Derek de Lint, Jeroen Krabbé as well as locally known actors like Belinda Meuldijk, Rijk de Gooyer and this is also a showcase of acting talent during the seventies and early eighties. British seventies actors Susan Penhaligon and Edward Fox (A Bridge Too Far) also have interesting performances.Based on the memoirs of Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema (Erik Lanshof in the movie), this is a reasonably realistic and truthful recounting of war and resistance during world war two. Roelfzema, a genuine war hero, first joined the student resistance, then the SOE, then joined the RAF and finally became an adjudant (aide) to queen Wilhelmina. He is still spritely and alive, living in Hawaii with his English wife. It is also pretty unique as it features what must be cinema's first and only drive-by-shooting from a bicycle. And one with wooden tires at that. And a great yarn too. It has heroism and cowardice, loyalty and betrayal, relativism, principles and pragmatism. Recommended.