Soldier of Orange

Six friends who are students in Leiden just before the German occupation of the Netherlands. When the war begins their paths separate: one joins the resistance, one works with the Nazis, one dies trying to escape, one chooses to survive without taking a side. Erik Lanshof gets to England and works with Queen Wilhelmina's government in exile. Paul Verhoeven directed and co-wrote. The source is Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema's wartime memoir. Rutger Hauer plays Erik, with Jeroen Krabbé in the cast. Rob Houwer produced. The budget was five million guilders, making it the most expensive Dutch film made up to 1977. What is interesting is that it does not take a side. It does not tell the resistance as an epic of heroism; who ends up where is largely left as accident and character. That ambiguity made the first reviews lukewarm while the public took to it completely. It was the most-seen domestic film of the year, took a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and won the Los Angeles Film Critics award in the same category in 1979. In 1999 the Netherlands Film Festival voted it the second best Dutch film ever made, behind another Verhoeven picture, Turkish Delight. Who it is for: viewers who want war drama and are curious about Verhoeven's Dutch period. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a clear moral line. The film absolves nobody entirely and does that on purpose.