Customer Reviews

Soldier of Orange [VHS]

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This is the only film that captures that thin line between heroism and betrayal in the Dutch experience from the innocence of that autumn of 1939 until the early days of Liberation in 1945. The uniqueness of this film lies in the character of the author/main character, Erik (played by Rutger Hauer) and his friend who both were "one of the few who stood up to be counted" joining a fledgling resistance in the early part of the war and lived to tell the tale.

The director, Paul Verhoeven retains a Dutch matter-of-factness, which combined with the superb soundtrack by Rogier van Otterloo infuses the film with a sense of anticipation never before or since achieved in a Dutch film.

It is no coincidence that the tale starts at pre-war Leiden University, which was founded as a direct result of the First Dutch War of Independence in 1575 and was closed in 1941 because its staff and students protested and went on strike against discrimination of its Jewish Professors. A poignant final scene in Wassenaar brings home that also in peace the innocent can still be a victim.

The portrayal of the indomitable Dutch Queen Wilhelmina (played by Andrea Domburg) and her special relationship with her "Engelandvaarders"("The England Bound") shows why the Orange factor acted as the focal point for maintaining Dutch national integrity.

The film allows a unique two and a half-hour window on what the Dutch faced in those five years.(This review refers to the 1995 Dutch edition)

This is a first-rate movie of WWII and, in my view, the best movie Paul Verhoeven has made to date. The Germans invade The Netherlands and a group of six university friends are caught up in the events that follow. Some join the Resistance and remain in the country, one tries to ignore what's happening, two escape to England to be trained for a dangerous mission, one joins the SS. The lead character is played by Rutger Hauer. It is he and his friend, played by Jeroen Krabbe, who make their way across the Channel. The movie is long but moves briskly and is full of incidents that are gripping and cinematic. The mission that sends Hauer and Krabbe back to their country goes very wrong, and people die as a result. The Hauer character, who was based on a real person, survives the war. Most of his friends don't. One who does, managed to survive by having to make a terrible choice. In fact, all the choices this group of friends make are simply shown with the consequences. There are no false heroics or tin nobility. Perhaps because of this, the movie was not especially well-received when it first opened in The Netherlands.

If any of Verhoeven's movies are watched forty years from now, I suspect this will be the one. Starship Troopers and RoboCop are a lot of fun, but they're essentially comic book movies before comic book movies became Hollywood's latest fashion. Total Recall and Basic Instinct are, to me, efficient but little more. Soldier of Orange is the work of a guy who understands a character-driven story and who has the skills to turn it into a dramatic but still character-driven movie.

Hauer and Krabbe are both excellent. Krabbe continues to work at being an excellent actor. He takes the money for some foolish stuff, but also selects many interesting films to appear in. But what happened to Hauer? He took on so many fifth-rate starring roles it was almost as if he were challenging someone to dare try to talk to him about his choices. I don't know if it was pig-headed self-destruction, but I find it hard to look at Hauer's career without shaking my head. And he is so good in this movie.

If you like RoboCop and Starship Troopers -- and I do -- (or Fatal Instinct or Total Recall), do yourself a favor and check out Soldier of Orange. I doubt you'll regret it.

The DVD transfer is excellent.

Soldier of Orange with commentary by Director Paul Verhoeven is a must-see for all history buffs, WWII historians and lovers of war movies. Based on the life of Erik Haselhoff Roelfzema, it chronicles his life in the resistance and that of a small group of law students in Leiden, The Netherlands. Verhoeven's commentary is worth the price of the DVD as he explains scene by scene what he tried to portray, while asking some very thought provoking questions. Verhoeven and I are the same age, and both of us lived in Holland during the occupation. His view of the conditions in Holland and the responses of the Dutch under occupation are very different. I also think his references to Das England Spiel are inaccurate. Having said all that, I still consider the DVD one of my most favorite productions, including the film itself. Soldaat van Oranje is my choice for best ever Dutch film. Those interested in learning more about the real Eric Hazelhoff Roelfzema should read "Soldaat van Oranje Omnibus" which includes "De Verre Tamboer (The Distant Drummer)" and "Op Jacht naar het Leven (In pursuit of Life)" all by Eric Hazelhoff Roelfzema.

This film is an absolute Dutch classic! It is about a group of Dutch students who meet at their fraternity initiation in 1938 in Leiden. We follow them from the tense pre-war days to the end of WWII. They take a photo of their group just before the war starts. From there they drift in different directions. Erik Lanshof gets involved in the resistance, while Alex decides to join the Waffen SS. It tells the universal story of courage and betrayal. One of the most dramatic moments for me was at the end of the movie when they show the pre-war photo of all friends, knowing what had happened to all of them. Every time it leaves me with a feeling of great sadness about the suffering that the war has brought. Arguably the best scene is where Erik enters occupied Holland and ends up in the middle of a German drinking party. To his surprise he finds Alex there and they dance a most remarkable Tango. My grandmothers both experienced life in occupied Holland and I heard from them first hand stories about betrayal and abuse of power. I can only imagine by watching this movie what it must have been like. I have seen this film many times over and, a sign of a true classic film, it only gets better.

I first saw SOLDIER OF ORANGE several years ago and then rewatched it this week. My reaction to the film on the second viewing was very different. I've visited the Netherlands many times (my mother was Dutch descent) and have known for years Rotterdam was leveled by the Nazis. Since it has been completely rebuilt, the sadness of the WWII bombing for me until now has been that I could no longer visit the lovely old buildings that existed before the war. How shallow I have been.

I live 5 blocks from the Pentagon, and on Sept. 11 when I drove home from work, I saw first hand the aftermath of an act of war. (My husband saw the blast from his office window.) I have friends who were in NYC or the at the Pentagon on Sept. 11. My friend Mike was in NYC for a meeting and packing to return when he heard the first explosion. As the first tower fell, he ran like mad from the Marriott that used to be in the WTC complex. Mike was barefooted and cut his feet to pieces. I asked him why he did not slip on his shoes before he ran. He says he did not want to appear in public wearing loafers with no socks. As Mike ran body parts rained down on him. He is shaking and breaks down in tears everytime he talks about it, but his psychiatrist tells him to keep talking about it.

So, when I watched SOLDIER OF ORANGE last night, and I saw Rutger Hauer's reaction to seeing body parts and broken babbling people after a Nazi bombing, I understood how little I had known before Sept. 11 and that bravery is relative. Some people like Donald Rumsfield stay on the job and pull people out of the wreckage. Some people run like mad. Some hide until the dust clears. Not until terrible events occur do any of us know how we will react.

Verhoeven's rendering of SOLDIER OF ORANGE is brilliant. The story concept is straighforward--follow the experiences of an ordinary group of young Dutch men who are all friends at university, who over the course of the film experience the halcyon days of college life and the destruction of their homeland via war and its aftermath.

Verhoeven shows how each of these young men reacts to events beyond their control. These are ordinary men in extraordinary circumstances. A few of them do end up in uniform (opposing sides). One man cannot stand to see a Jew mistreated and he intervenes to his sorrow. Another has a German mother so he joins the Nazis. One is Jewish and must attempt an escape. Another hides out and continues his eductation, acquiring his degree behind closed doors. Another dies in a concentration camp. Yet another joins the RAF after a series of misadventures and becomes a hero.

Someone once said to me they thought Tom Hanks was miscast in Speilberg's RYAN, to which I replied, but he's just like my Uncle Paul who received a battlefield commission and a chest full of medals when he was the last man standing in a fight in southern France. Gentle Uncle Paul who went home to Illinois after the war, resumed his life as a printer and never did another bold thing.

I think this story is fabulous--an exploration of how real people behave during unreal times, which Verhoeven seems to understand. My DVD is excellent with vivid shots of the Netherlands and England twenty years ago when folks still rode bicycles. What a hoot to see a troop of soldiers on bikes!! (The film contains some hilarious scenes, even in war funny things happen.) The DVD contains a commentary with Verhoeven and others similar to the CRITERION films.

Winner of the Los Angeles Film Critics Award as Best Foreign Film in 1979, Soldier of Orange is based on the memoir of the same name by Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema, one of the founders of the Dutch Resistance, aide to Queen Wilmelmina during her exile in England, and RAF Pathfinder pilot in the last days of the war. Directed by Paul Verhoeven, the film dramatizes the traumatic effects of the Nazi occupation on Holland, and the often futile attempts to form a local Dutch Resistance.

Location scenes provide stunning realism--from the boisterous hazing of students in Leyden, where Hazelhoff (known in the film as Lanshof) was a law student, to the beach of Scheveningen, where Lanshof and his friends attempted to cross the Channel to England by small boat, and the streets of The Hague, where one of Lanshof's friends is seen late in the war.

Often said to be the best film ever made in Holland and the best film ever made by Paul Verhoeven, the film is also the best film ever made by Rutger Hauer, who plays the role of Lanshof with great panache. Jereoen Krabbe, playing his best friend, Guus LeJeune, is equally good in his role as a long-time friend from Leyden and hero of the Resistance. Focusing on these two men and four friends who react to the Occupation in different ways, the film brings to life the choices made by people in occupied Holland. Of the 144 who, like Lanshof and LeJeune, escaped and then made the decision to return to Holland to set up a Resistance, only 28 survived.

Beautifully photographed by Jost Vacano, the film gives a sense of the helplessness of Holland's small army against the Nazi juggernaut, the beauty of the countryside, and the victimization of the Dutch people as they faced subjugation. Though the torture scenes are graphic and brutal, the film is so well done and so involving that one even forgets the film has subtitles. Hazelhoff continues this story in his recent autobiography, In Pursuit of Life, which I strongly recommend, not only to fans of this film and the book which inspired it, but to anyone interested in fine writing and a fascinating life story. Mary Whipple

"Soldier of Orange" is the story of several young residents of the Netherlands who become involved in World War II. I believe it is the best film directed by Paul Verhoeven - far better than anything he has made since coming to the U.S. from the Netherlands. Rutger Hauer is also excellent in the film. A VHS version of this film was available some years ago in the U.S. but letterboxing brings the film back to its original theater experience. This film is absolutely in my "Top 10" of all time list.

I couldn't buy this DVD in the Netherlands (had to buy it in the UK)... what kind of crazy world is this? :s

Anyway, the movie starts with a recording of queen Wilhelmina stepping out an airplane at the army airport "Valkenburg" (near Leiden) at the end of the WWII. She's accompanied by Eric Hazelhoff-Roelzema, adjudant to the queen and soldier of Orange. The movie tells the story of Eric Hazelhoff-Roelzema (Eric Lanshof in the movie). He studied law in Leiden and was in fact one of the last students to graduate at Leiden University during the second world war. He also was a member of the Dutch resistance. Eventhough the movie and the book he wrote about the war are not very similar, the situation and circumstances of the war in Holland are nicely shown.

In Leiden you can still see the room right accross the Academy Building, where Eric lived at the beginning of the war.

A great movie for its time. Not as good as warfilms like Schindler's List; the Pianist; or The Band of Brothers series, but good nonetheless. The music of Rogier van Otterloo is just perfect. For a Leidener and lawstudent in Leiden as myself, a must have!

Great movie and we see it coming back on television here in Holland every year around this time (the Germans invaded Holland om May 10th 1940 and were officially kicked out by the Canadians om May 5th 1945). But I had to have the DVD to be able to watch it the next 50 years or so!
Keep in mind when you buy this DVD that the story more or less really happened. Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema, on who the main character of Erik Lanshof (Rutger Hauer) in the movie is based, is even still alive today.

Don't expect sound and visual effects like in Star Wars, this is an old movie, but I guess it was enhanced as much as possible when it was put on DVD. I personally like that everyone in the movie speaks his own language, so you won't have to listen to German Soldiers speaking English, etc. As a Dutchman I found it annoying though that the English subtitles cannot be switched off.

One of the best WWII movies I have ever seen, and the only one I recall from Holland. The first time I saw this I was amazed by the fact this was one of the best foreign films I had seen up to the mid 80s. I had seen Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner a few years before I caught this movie and I thought he was great. After I saw this I knew it. This is by far one of his best dramatic roles, if not his best. Anyone that enjoys war movies will probably like it. If you enjoy the dramatic ones like "Schindler's List" and "Das Boot" you will definitely enjoy it. Although it is a bit long it did not seem long to me since the pace was good. Keep an open mind about when it was made when you see the special effects and you will find it both compelling and a movie of craftmanship. I have ordered this on DVD because it is difficult to find anyone renting this any longer. Unfortunately it is not a mainstream war movie so most the local rental stores don't carry it. I highly recommend you see it and any fan of war movies will probably want it for their collection.