MikePadgett.com / Reviews / Film / Soldier of Orange

Soldier of Orange

— Strong performances and arresting images in this Dutch view of wartime occupation.”

Soldier of Orange
  • Director: Paul Verhoeven
  • Netherlands, 1977
  • 4 stars out of 5

Verhoeven’s revisionist wartime drama is a bittersweet story of five student dandies who each face the subjugation of their country in different ways. The film displays a sensitivity that’s missing in the director’s Hollywood oeuvre.

Soldier of Orange would still be an effective ensemble piece without the outstanding performances put in by Rutger Hauer and Jeroen Krabbé, oscillating unnervingly between humour and horror.

Verhoeven’s visual interpretation of Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema’s book was also informed by personal experience, and he may draw on this resource once more in the forthcoming Black Book, his first Dutch film for 21 years.

Originally published: September 4th, 2006 in Film

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