Soldaat van Oranje (1977)'s comments

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kathulu

"Aristocracy belongs to the past."

Out of all the lines, this one stood out to me the most with its glaring irony. History will forever repeat itself.

The eternally charismatic Rutger Hauer stars in this WWII epic by Paul Verhooven, playing his role as Erik Lanshof with youthful charm and vigour. And for me, that was one of the few true redeeming qualities about this film. Not to say that it's a bad film - more that it is just simply unremarkable. I wanted to get engrossed in it, but it was never able to pull me in fully.

The soundtrack was undoubtedly just lovely. The German crooners of the 1930s are a different breed of haunting nostalgia, and Rogier Van Otterloo's score is also quite impressive and lovely to the ear, even if a bit war-generic at times. In particular the track "Ester" is evoking the essense of what film scores are, bringing the movie back to what it's supposed to be, and "Englandvaarders Hebben Een Streepje Voor" is almost comically similar to the ever-famous "Jaws" theme, which would come out a year later - curious indeed!

Veerhoven's special effects for the horrors of war and torture are reminiscent of his other, later works, such as the ketchup-like horrific blood splatter and other more cerebral terrors for our imagination. Both explicit and implicit, the effects do not function completely as a suspension of disbelief but nevertheless, they do still turn your stomach and at their worst, hit you over the head with the violence.

The movie is undoubtedly important in the tapestry of cinema history, but will probably never be the first WWII adventurous tale that would jump to mind when the mood for a war movie strikes.

7 months ago

Sokratesz

Hollands Glorie!

12 years 8 months ago

nicolaskrizan

chance vs choice

http://1001movies.posterous.com/935

12 years 2 months ago