Soldier Of Orange [DVD]

It is easy to see why this very impressive war film helped to pave the way for Dutch film director Paul Verhoeven to work in Hollywood, where he made more typically mainstream offerings like "Robocop" and "Total Recall". I honestly believe that "Soldier of Orange" is a better film than any he made in America. Verhoeven challenges the long accepted notion that the Dutch nation had resisted the Nazis honourably. If so why was the Dutch section of the Waffen SS the largest non German one? Why had 100,000 out of a total of 140,000 Dutch jews been deported? Collaboration on a huge scale was clearly required for such an operation! Times of occupation bring out the best and the worst in people. Decisions are taken on whether to collaborate, resist or quietly acquiesce. The distinction between hero and villain so often becomes a blurry line, and it is these themes that Verhoeven explores so subtly.

In the film Verhoeven cleverly uses a group of Dutch students to explore all these difficult anomalies. One man joins the Waffen SS after his German mother is interned by the Dutch authorities. Another betrays his friends to protect his Jewish girlfriend. One man simply keeps his head down in the hope everything will blow over quickly. A sensible approach some might argue! Others take terrible risks working for the resistance, where capture inevitably meant horrific torture at the hands of the Nazis. The unpleasant truths about torture are certainly not avoided. Rutger Hauer plays Eric Lanshof, who is based on a real character, and shows us the acting intensity that was to forge him a long and lucrative acting career. He is backed up by a strong cast including Jeroen Krabbe, and British heavyweights Edward Fox and the attractive Susan Penhaligon, who was the stiffest competition around at the time to the earthy charms of Susan George. The young Penhaligon was certainly not shy about revealing her charms in this film! The film has a surprisingly erudite script which has some purple patches of dark humour. On one occasion a resistance fighter is given cyanide tablets to use as a last resort. He chirpily asks if they come in orange or lemon flavours. There are also a few memorable scenes including one daring party tango between Hauer and his uniformed Waffen SS friend. We also find out that the British Army is happy to ruthlessly sacrifice Dutch agents in order to divert attention away from invasion plans.

At the time the film was the most expensive Dutch production ever costing 3.5 million guilders. During filming the money ran out causing a five month delay. Verhoeven later successfully went back to very similar Dutch war time themes with "Black Book", drawing inspiration from his earlier film. The film was ahead of its time in its honest depiction of some of the more unsavoury aspects of war. It was made way back in 1977 when boys own style war movies were only just starting to peter out. It has taken me a long time to catch up with this film but it was well worth the wait. I enjoy a good war film, and this one proved to be very good indeed. Verhoeven is a much more talented director than I had realised!

One of the best war films I have seen with a limited amount of the 'Shoot Bang Fire' as Kingsley Amis described it We don't read much about the Dutch resistance and this film shows how exceptionally brave they were. There were of course also those Dutch who joined the Nazis. Rutger Heuer is a highly talented actor and the atmosphere of life in pre-war Holland as a student is very well shown. A great deal of sadness is inevitable but the film also shows that the Dutch have a similar sense of humour to the British. If you enjoy this you will also like 'Black Book' with Carice Van Houten.