For a Lost Soldier (1992)

i must have seen a different film!!

Fresh and Exciting

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Having lived and worked in the Netherlands and knowing its language, I have been interested in the Dutch cinema as well, particularly if Rutger Hauer or Jeroen Krabbé present. There have lots of films on the WWII been made, nicely versatile ones, as the period was one of the most painful and complex in the country's history. Thus, I was eager to learn how the war era was made compatible with such a sensitive topic like man-boy relationship.But the latter was not much visible in Voor een verloren soldaat (perhaps in the autobiographical novel of the same title - I have not read that); it was even not clearly visible if there was some mutual erotics at all. What we saw was a 20+ years foreign soldier acting as a caring mentor, showing a boy far from home and family new angles of life; besides, I do not believe that showing affection towards a boy would have been normally accepted by both the religious Dutchmen and militant Canadians in those days...Anyway, the mood in the film is pleasant, performances realistic, and viewers obtain a nice overview of Friesland under slackening Nazi occupation. But do not try to find any sensationalism, as mentioned, it is a good depiction of friendship - with some affection - during a war period when many things and deeds are perceived in another way.

This movie did not feel right for the relationship he was portraying - a love affair between a 20 something guy and a boy just reaching puberty. It is a love story.I've met adults who've had sex with boys this age and I've met adults who had sex with adults when they were this age. Things just didn't fit so I got the book and read it. There is very little relationship between the book and the movie other than title, place and time frame. The book is a story about the repeated rape of a boy.The thing that bothered me about this mediocre movie was the lack of any emotional content. It seemed like there was emotion but there wasn't. The book which unfolds entirely differently than the movie also lacks real emotion, just what I'd expect from an adult, the author, who was raped at a tender age. An 11 year old boy who has an emotional warm sexualized relationship with an adult does not lead an emotionless life as an adult. One who is raped, sex with no emotion and unwanted, usually becomes an emotionless adult whose main emotional expression is ready anger.Get the book. It is worth reading. Skip the movie.

I do not quickly give a ten... and perhaps I shouldn't give this movie a ten if I'm honest, because normally I only gave a 10 when I love the music AND the story AND the special effects AND fall in love one of the main characters etc... in other words when the movie is totally perfect. On the other hand, I could say that I give a ten to a movie that really gets into my soul and causes me to still feel strong emotions a week later.I suppose this movie, on my scale, is actually a 9. Nevertheless, it *deserves* a ten. It's one of a kind. I have the utmost respect for the people who made this movie, and the way they made it. I'd like to especially thank Maarten Smit for taking it upon him to do this role. Thank you Maarten, a LOT of people will respect you for this - more than you know.A wonderful movie, a must see for everyone who knows that love isn't limited by age boundaries.

A friend urged me to watch this movie and I did so with absolutely no idea of what it was about.Everything others have said about it is true but still I feel very uneasy about the subject matter and the "acceptable" way in which it is portrayed.This little boy is just that, a little boy and whether you're straight or gay, relationships between adults and children are taboo. The validity of that taboo can be argued but it exists not to protect the adult but to protect the child.An interesting movie but the subject matter prevents it from being great.