History is not without its dark patches. With territorial expansion and a worldwide trade that turned the Dutch 17th century into a Golden Age (a term that is already becoming controversial in itself), there also came slavery, colonial subjugation and bloody struggles for independence. Making these topics debatable in history lessons and political arenas is essentialy a good thing: the Germans seem to have no problem with tackling the sins of the past in their art, judging by great movies like Der Untergang (The Downfall), Das Leben Der Anderen (The Lives of Others) and Werk Ohne Autor (Never Look Away). Acknowledging a dark past is a cathartic experience, and the more we embrace our mistakes, the less likely we are to repeat them.
Still, the euphemistically called 'politional actions' in colonial Indonesia have remained an underexposed area for years. Director Jim Taihuttu righteously noticed the dozens of war movies full of brave Dutch resistance fighters, but a near-complete lack of movies about the role of the Netherlands in the Indonesian Revolution. The fact that controversy arose before and after this movie was released already underscores how painful this topic still is. So the big question is: can the first movie about it do both justice to the sensitivity of the subject, as well as the complexity of the situation?
In the best tradition of movies based on historic events, we follow a fictional character who draws the audience into an unknown world. In this case, Johan, a young man burdened by the recently ended war and his father's part in it as a German collaborator. Hoping to wipe the slate clean, he volunteers to go to the East Indies and get control back from nationalist terrorist groups. His regiment is full of ideas of colonial superiority, and determined to bring back civilization to this backward country, but they soon find out that they are stuck in a routine of guard duties, long marches and preparing for battles against enemies they rarely get to see.
The first half of the movie has a pleasantly authentic feeling to it. The soldiers are a diverse group of young men from all over the Netherlands, and not just Amsterdam, Rotterdam or The Hague. Taihuttu doesn't pull his punches when he depicts them realistically to the point of being wildly racist, and when they battle their boredom with alcohol, frequenting prostitutes and starting fights in local bars. The mood is almost the same as the one we know from many Vietnam movies, including the horrible plight of the locals who are forced to pick a side, and then have to be prepared for the retaliation of the other , and how traumatized Dutch soldiers were not exactly welcomed back as heroes. However, this part of the movie starts to meander a bit without a real conflict, so a welcome bit of drama is injected when Raymond Westerling, or "the Turk" (Marwan Kenzari) makes his entrance.
In contrast to the ofther officers who show very little motivation to take actions that could actually amount to anything, the Turk has a hands-on approach to deal with hostiles that may be in a morally grey area, but it actually produces results. Johan follows this man with great zeal, until he gets to a point where the Turk's actions get harder and harder to defend. It was a good idea to cast Martijn Lakemeier as Johan, as he is best known for playing a young fledgling WW2 freedom fighter in Oorlogswinter (Winter in Wartime) where he has to make some tough choices. We can totally see him to the same in Indonesia, and get into an inner conflict when the things he does there are not too different from what the Nazis did in the Netherlands.
However, the role of the Turk is the movie's greatest blessing as well as its biggest curse. The story is clearly moving towards presenting a moral dilemma for both Johan and the viewer, but because we see the Turk's platoon use harsh methods (almost to the point of getting repetitious) that are still branded "war crimes" by many to this day, it is not really a dilemma. Critics have indeed argued that Indonesian guerilla groups also did many horrible things that sometimes surpassed the cruelty of the Dutch army, and many locals were happy that the Dutch responded in kind. However, the makers seem to want to keep the sympathy primarily with the Indonesians (perhaps a condition for being allowed to film there?). In the first half, we ocassionally see some of the atrocities done by the terrorists, but the crimes of the "belandas" (Dutch people) get much more exposure, especially towards the end. I really don't mind seeing Dutch people as "the bad guys"; it is disturbingly easy to get dragged into that kind of group behavior. However, I also think that moral ambiguity works much better if there is more balance in how the two warring factions are depicted.
What also starts to work against the movie is the framing story, where Johan is back in the Netherlands and finds it difficult to adapt to normal life. These scenes are interspersed with the main events of 1946, and in an ideal back-and-forth structure, the two storylines reinforce each other, but here, we don't really see the point of the framing story until the very end. Granted, the last scene is shockingly effective, but the impact is somewhat diminished by the Tarantino-esque choice of music during the final shot.
There are still enough moments were the movie works. There is little to none of the cheesiness that often plagues Dutch movies that try to tackle serious subject matter; the performances are good throughout, as are the production values (due to filming on location in Indonesia). There is one great scene in particular where Johan asks a fellow soldier, an Indonesian, why he is fighting against his countrymen. The answer is that he is not: Indonesia is a country full of different peoples at odds with each other, and the Dutch simply treat it as one country. I wished there were more of these scenes where the complex situation is captured so beautifully in a single conversation.
One critic called this movie a 3/5 star film, but he gave it 4 out of 5 stars, just for sheer boldness of finally committing this sordid history on film. I partially agree with that statement, yet I believe that making an 'important movie' does not discharge the makers from telling a balanced story. This was a more than adequate film, but I keep wondering if it would have worked better as a mini-series that had more time to explore both sides of the conflict. But other films like Soldaat van Oranje, Riphagen and De Tweeling were also eventually re-edited as mini-series, so who knows?
Still, the euphemistically called 'politional actions' in colonial Indonesia have remained an underexposed area for years. Director Jim Taihuttu righteously noticed the dozens of war movies full of brave Dutch resistance fighters, but a near-complete lack of movies about the role of the Netherlands in the Indonesian Revolution. The fact that controversy arose before and after this movie was released already underscores how painful this topic still is. So the big question is: can the first movie about it do both justice to the sensitivity of the subject, as well as the complexity of the situation?
In the best tradition of movies based on historic events, we follow a fictional character who draws the audience into an unknown world. In this case, Johan, a young man burdened by the recently ended war and his father's part in it as a German collaborator. Hoping to wipe the slate clean, he volunteers to go to the East Indies and get control back from nationalist terrorist groups. His regiment is full of ideas of colonial superiority, and determined to bring back civilization to this backward country, but they soon find out that they are stuck in a routine of guard duties, long marches and preparing for battles against enemies they rarely get to see.
The first half of the movie has a pleasantly authentic feeling to it. The soldiers are a diverse group of young men from all over the Netherlands, and not just Amsterdam, Rotterdam or The Hague. Taihuttu doesn't pull his punches when he depicts them realistically to the point of being wildly racist, and when they battle their boredom with alcohol, frequenting prostitutes and starting fights in local bars. The mood is almost the same as the one we know from many Vietnam movies, including the horrible plight of the locals who are forced to pick a side, and then have to be prepared for the retaliation of the other , and how traumatized Dutch soldiers were not exactly welcomed back as heroes. However, this part of the movie starts to meander a bit without a real conflict, so a welcome bit of drama is injected when Raymond Westerling, or "the Turk" (Marwan Kenzari) makes his entrance.
In contrast to the ofther officers who show very little motivation to take actions that could actually amount to anything, the Turk has a hands-on approach to deal with hostiles that may be in a morally grey area, but it actually produces results. Johan follows this man with great zeal, until he gets to a point where the Turk's actions get harder and harder to defend. It was a good idea to cast Martijn Lakemeier as Johan, as he is best known for playing a young fledgling WW2 freedom fighter in Oorlogswinter (Winter in Wartime) where he has to make some tough choices. We can totally see him to the same in Indonesia, and get into an inner conflict when the things he does there are not too different from what the Nazis did in the Netherlands.
However, the role of the Turk is the movie's greatest blessing as well as its biggest curse. The story is clearly moving towards presenting a moral dilemma for both Johan and the viewer, but because we see the Turk's platoon use harsh methods (almost to the point of getting repetitious) that are still branded "war crimes" by many to this day, it is not really a dilemma. Critics have indeed argued that Indonesian guerilla groups also did many horrible things that sometimes surpassed the cruelty of the Dutch army, and many locals were happy that the Dutch responded in kind. However, the makers seem to want to keep the sympathy primarily with the Indonesians (perhaps a condition for being allowed to film there?). In the first half, we ocassionally see some of the atrocities done by the terrorists, but the crimes of the "belandas" (Dutch people) get much more exposure, especially towards the end. I really don't mind seeing Dutch people as "the bad guys"; it is disturbingly easy to get dragged into that kind of group behavior. However, I also think that moral ambiguity works much better if there is more balance in how the two warring factions are depicted.
What also starts to work against the movie is the framing story, where Johan is back in the Netherlands and finds it difficult to adapt to normal life. These scenes are interspersed with the main events of 1946, and in an ideal back-and-forth structure, the two storylines reinforce each other, but here, we don't really see the point of the framing story until the very end. Granted, the last scene is shockingly effective, but the impact is somewhat diminished by the Tarantino-esque choice of music during the final shot.
There are still enough moments were the movie works. There is little to none of the cheesiness that often plagues Dutch movies that try to tackle serious subject matter; the performances are good throughout, as are the production values (due to filming on location in Indonesia). There is one great scene in particular where Johan asks a fellow soldier, an Indonesian, why he is fighting against his countrymen. The answer is that he is not: Indonesia is a country full of different peoples at odds with each other, and the Dutch simply treat it as one country. I wished there were more of these scenes where the complex situation is captured so beautifully in a single conversation.
One critic called this movie a 3/5 star film, but he gave it 4 out of 5 stars, just for sheer boldness of finally committing this sordid history on film. I partially agree with that statement, yet I believe that making an 'important movie' does not discharge the makers from telling a balanced story. This was a more than adequate film, but I keep wondering if it would have worked better as a mini-series that had more time to explore both sides of the conflict. But other films like Soldaat van Oranje, Riphagen and De Tweeling were also eventually re-edited as mini-series, so who knows?