Paul Verhoeven in his audio commentary on the DVD edition of Starship Troopers says that his film was in many ways inspired by the Second World War, which he witnessed as a boy growing up in Nazi-occupied Netherlands. This is a subject Verhoeven tackled twice directly in his filmography. The first of those films was the 1977 war epic Soldier of Orange.
The film is based on the best-selling memoirs of Dutch resistance activist Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema and begins shortly after the war’s end, when Queen Wilhelmina triumphantly returns to the Netherlands after five years of exile, accompanied by her trusted aide and the film’s protagonist Erik Lanshof (played by Rutger Hauer). The plot then goes back to before the war, to the year 1938, when Erik, as a young student, goes through a brutal hazing ritual at the hands of people who would become his lifelong friends. A year later the Second World War erupts in Poland, but Erik and his friends don’t think much of it, convinced that the Netherlands will, just as in the First World War, remain neutral. On 10 May 1940 Hitler’s Germany proves them wrong by invading. The Dutch military is no match for the might, speed and brutality of the German Blitzkrieg and is forced to capitulate after only a few days of resistance. Erik’s friends fare very differently during the subsequent occupation – boxer Jan (played by Huib Rooymans) is persecuted for his Jewish background while the half-German Alex (played by Derek de Lint) enthusiastically accepts the New Order and joins the Waffen-SS. Erik joins the resistance movement and, together with his friend Guus (played by Jeroen Krabbe), escapes to England where they begin to work with British intelligence. This includes missions on Dutch soil, which become increasingly dangerous because the Germans have gained valuable information about the resistance network and appear to know every detail of their plans.
Soldier of Orange was at its time the most expensive film in the history of Dutch cinema, but, despite the large amounts of money invested in the careful recreation of 1940s Netherlands, its ‘epic’ credentials might be a matter of debate. In the film, major military action appears relatively briefly and the war, instead of being fought on the battlefield, is fought in the hearts and minds of the Dutch people, who are often forced to make difficult moral decisions and often not-so-fortunate choices. Made from a Dutch perspective, Soldier of Orange doesn’t shy away from some unpleasant truths, often ignored by post-war official histories of Nazi-occupied countries. The initial military resistance to the Germans was next to pointless, while the later underground resistance was compromised both by the mistakes of British allies and by betrayals within its own ranks. Such betrayals sometimes had little to do with ideology, greed or opportunism; a good example is given by the character of radio operator Robby (played by Eddy Habbema) who gives up his friends to the Gestapo in order to save his half-Jewish fiancée Esther (played by Belinda Meuldijk) from being sent to a concentration camp. At the very end of the film, there is less a celebration of patriotic triumph and more a feeling of sadness when Erik looks at an old photo of his friends who perished in the war.
Verhoeven’s style at the time was still unpolished, at least in comparison with his later Hollywood films, and its rawness, especially in the scenes featuring graphic violence, sex or nudity, seemed more fitting to contemporary dramas than to war epics. Soldier of Orange is at times not exactly coherent and in the second half switches tone from a story about the Dutch resistance towards a story about Erik and his subsequent war adventures, which include a career as an RAF pilot. But Verhoeven’s direction is steady enough to keep viewers’ interest and is also helped by a very talented and enthusiastic cast, including a young Rutger Hauer who is, however, overshadowed by Jeroen Krabbe in the role of a tragic hero, so different from the villains he played in his later Hollywood films. A good impression is also given by Susan Penhaligon as a free-spirited British servicewoman whose sense of wartime hedonism makes her enjoy being shared by Erik and Guus. Soldier of Orange proved to be a major success, both among critics and audiences, so it isn’t surprising that Verhoeven, a few decades later, revisited the same subject and used a similar style in Black Book.
RATING: 7/10 (++)
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/ Leofinance blog https://leofinance.io/@drax.leo Cent profile https://beta.cent.co/@drax Minds profile https://www.minds.com/drax_rp_nc Uptrennd profile https://www.uptrennd.com/user/MTYzNA
Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax 1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
