Movie: Soldier of Orange - Soldaat van Oranje (Paul Verhoeven, 1977)
In 1947, the Dutch secret service thwarted an attempt to overthrow the Dutch government. The coup, which failed before it ever seriously began, aimed to block the process of recognising Indonesia as an independent state. Among the conspirators were a former Dutch prime minister and a number of World War 2 resistance heroes, including the "soldier of Orange", Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema. This was not public knowledge when this film, based on Roelfzema's memoirs, was made, but you can easily imagine its Erik Lanshof (Rutger Hauer) participating in such a scheme. His resistance against the Nazi's is driven more by instincts and a somewhat misplaced sense of adventure than by idealism and moral conviction. And though he would like to believe himself a man capable of making his own luck, Verhoeven never lets us forget that he is ultimately just a cog in the (resistance) machine, and not even an incredibly significant one.
In addition to this thoroughly wonderful film, Roelfzema's memoirs also spawned the most succesful musical in Dutch theater history. It premiered in October 2010 and is still running. I haven't seen it, but its centerpiece song presents a conventionally heroic narrative: If we don't do anything, who else will/It's up to you and me/we are our only hope. This is pretty much a direct repudiation of what Verhoeven is doing, always portraying the individual resistance fighters as part of a greater whole. All of Lanshof's missions are placed in the context of a far broader resistance effort, without us (or him) ever getting a real sense of that broader context. The film for the most part presents everything from Lanshof's point of view, and so we are not made aware of the actions in tha past that made Lanshof resistance efforts necessary and possible, nor do we see the consequences his resistance efforts have. We are asked to have faith that other people we are not aware of have done, and will continue to do, the right thing, whatever that may be. This approach produces a film of almost ceaseless movement, both by the camera and the characters who are constantly thinking, scheming, spying, flirting, improvising, planning and adjusting their plans based on the information available. It is ridiculously entertaining and often almost equally tense.
I am not the greatest fan of Paul Verhoeven. I think he tries too hard to be seen as clever and inflammatory, which can sometimes suck the air out of his films and make them painfully obvious. It's impossible to not enjoy Basic Instinct, but I have never warmed to Turkish Delight and Starship Troopers. A populist film like Soldier of Orange is probably the perfect match for him, as it stops him from making too strained choices, while adding flair to what could have been a more conventional bore in someone else's hands. Nobody but Verhoeven could film the scene in which Queen Wilhelmina is having a formal talk with Erik, while in the background of the frame his resistance/fraternity buddy Guus (Jeroen Krabbe) is having wild sex with the woman who should prepare their next mission. The same can be said about Erik's tango with Alex (Derek de Lint), his friend from college who went on to fight for the Germans. More subversive than the sexual innuendo is the suggestion that Alex and Erik aren't that dissimilar. They haven't thought particularly long and hard about the decision to join the side they joined and their roles could have been easily reversed. Neither of them can probably articulate exactly why they aren't. Finally, the opening scene is a technical marvel. Verhoeven meticulously recreates the style of Dutch 1940's newsreels to seamlessly integrate fictional characters in archival footage.
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