4 Stars and A Thumb Up
Added 11/16/2009
I remembered seeing this movie years ago and loved it. The dialogue does seem a little stilted in spots, but it is still a good movie. The plot and characters are enjoyable.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Brilliant film
Added 4/4/2009
This is Paul Verhoeven at his best, before he was Hollywoodized. It is a thoughtful, intelligent movie about the Nazi occupation of Holland, a grittily realistic film that shows the complications of war and occupation - the desire for self-survival, the limits of patriotism, the fragility of war-time romances, and the bravery and sacrifices that some, but not all, are willing to exhibit. The movie follows six students through the tragedies and moral uncertainties of occupied Holland. Nothing in this war is black and white, the choices are not easy and only two of the six survive to the end of the war. The deaths of the others run the gamut from heroic to tragic to shameful. Both the maturation of these young men from the naive students they were in the beginning and the grim consequences of the choices they are forced to make are brilliantly depicted. Unlike many war movies which concentrate on spectacle and explosions, this focuses on feelings - the realities of life in occupied Holland and the emotions of these six men.
This was a breakthrough film for Rutger Hauer as the central figure of the movie and he gives a beautifully nuanced performance. The growth of his character, Eric, from naive student to a man struggling with the horrors of the occupation to the seasoned soldier at the end sweeps the viewer along with him.
'Soldier Of Orange' is right up there with such classic war movies as Kubrick's 'Paths Of Glory', Fuller's 'The Big Red One' and Peckinpah's 'Cross Of Iron'. Highly recommended!
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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The New Nobility of Europe will come from the Resistance.
Added 1/12/2008
So said the queen then and so it became. This film is one of the great half dozen or so masterpieces of film from the 20th Century. It's no secret that Mr. Hauer is considered the European "James Dean" of his generation and perhaps the most intelligent actor ever from Dutch Cinema. The innovation and pure poetry of "Orange" from the insertion of Hauer into old newsreels, to the delicate embroidery of repetive music has been endlessly copied but never reproduced. A great film has to have transcendant scenes and this is full of them. My favorite is when the Jewish boxer is taken to the dunes to be shot and he stands above the dug grave waiting for the bullets and breathes in the last breath of salt air, sees the clouds scud across the Holland sky,and a flock of birds flies across the screen as if to show him the way. This is a pure work of art, a seamless expression with no mistakes.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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A movie made with a lot of 'heart'. Bold, naive and Dutch in positve way.
Added 12/31/2007
The Netherlands (aka Holland) has not produced many movies that survived the onslaught of Hollywood productions in the cinemas. I grew up as a Surinamese youth in the Netherlands, from a Dutch father that was in Holland for most of WWII. He never talks about it unless I really prod and the stories and memories visibly shake him and others that talk about it. Memories of him as a 13 or 14 year old in the Hague when the Nazi's rounded up folks on a square in the city and eliminated them. Anyways, I am drifting of the topic... It would be good for newer generations to stop and listen to those around us that have lived through the war(s), any wars. It is life changing and affects their (and our) lives into our future and beyond.
Anyways, on Sep 29th of 2007 the Soldier of Oranje, Siebren Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema, died at age 90 in Hawaii. It is worthwhile to watch this film, based on his book of the same name.
This is his personal view and story of how he and his close friends lived through WWII and how it affected them all individually.
I watched this movie as a pre-teen in School and remember how brutal and undiscriminating this film takes you through the episode.
I am not really a fan of Verhoeven but think that the honest, bsic, naive storytelling is very typical of Dutch films and leaves room for your own interpretation of the events.
Don't discard this move for it's lack of Hollywood grandeur but watch it as an autobiography of a very respected and heroic Dutch freedom fighter. This movie belong is a collection of A Bridge Too Far and Patton. Must have war movies with deeper meaning.
It still moves me after all these years and has held up well over time.
PS: Isn't Rutger Hauer the BEST!!!
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Soldier of Orange
Added 7/4/2007
Director Verhoeven's breatkthrough Dutch film would win him a ticket to Hollywood, along with stars Hauer and Krabbe (who are both outstanding here), but none of the three would again equal this breathless, beautifully realized film, which, like most outstanding war movies, also manages to tell an affecting human story. Intelligent, involving and highly evocative, "Soldier Of Orange" is one of the finest war films of this or any period.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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4 Stars and A Thumb Up
Added 11/16/2009
I remembered seeing this movie years ago and loved it. The dialogue does seem a little stilted in spots, but it is still a good movie. The plot and characters are enjoyable.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Brilliant film
Added 4/4/2009
This is Paul Verhoeven at his best, before he was Hollywoodized. It is a thoughtful, intelligent movie about the Nazi occupation of Holland, a grittily realistic film that shows the complications of war and occupation - the desire for self-survival, the limits of patriotism, the fragility of war-time romances, and the bravery and sacrifices that some, but not all, are willing to exhibit. The movie follows six students through the tragedies and moral uncertainties of occupied Holland. Nothing in this war is black and white, the choices are not easy and only two of the six survive to the end of the war. The deaths of the others run the gamut from heroic to tragic to shameful. Both the maturation of these young men from the naive students they were in the beginning and the grim consequences of the choices they are forced to make are brilliantly depicted. Unlike many war movies which concentrate on spectacle and explosions, this focuses on feelings - the realities of life in occupied Holland and the emotions of these six men.
This was a breakthrough film for Rutger Hauer as the central figure of the movie and he gives a beautifully nuanced performance. The growth of his character, Eric, from naive student to a man struggling with the horrors of the occupation to the seasoned soldier at the end sweeps the viewer along with him.
'Soldier Of Orange' is right up there with such classic war movies as Kubrick's 'Paths Of Glory', Fuller's 'The Big Red One' and Peckinpah's 'Cross Of Iron'. Highly recommended!
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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The New Nobility of Europe will come from the Resistance.
Added 1/12/2008
So said the queen then and so it became. This film is one of the great half dozen or so masterpieces of film from the 20th Century. It's no secret that Mr. Hauer is considered the European "James Dean" of his generation and perhaps the most intelligent actor ever from Dutch Cinema. The innovation and pure poetry of "Orange" from the insertion of Hauer into old newsreels, to the delicate embroidery of repetive music has been endlessly copied but never reproduced. A great film has to have transcendant scenes and this is full of them. My favorite is when the Jewish boxer is taken to the dunes to be shot and he stands above the dug grave waiting for the bullets and breathes in the last breath of salt air, sees the clouds scud across the Holland sky,and a flock of birds flies across the screen as if to show him the way. This is a pure work of art, a seamless expression with no mistakes.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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