Soldier of Orange (1979)

Based on real events, Soldier of Orange tells the story of Dutchman Erik Lanshof (a star-making performance by Rutger Hauer) and a small group of students as they struggle to survive the Nazi occupation to the end of the Second World War. The destinies of the characters range from joining the German army to making for England, the OSS, and the Resistance. Across a canvas lasting almost three hours, director Paul Verhoeven unfolds a saga of friendship, espionage, and romance with almost documentary realism--though not as graphically violent as his later American films, the torture scenes are intense--crafting a deeply affecting film widely regarded as the greatest ever made in Holland. Comparable recent films such as Enigma (2001) and Charlotte Gray (2002) do not come close. Hauer is brilliant at the heart of what is a detailed and thoughtful drama made with integrity and passion. Twenty years later in 1997, Verhoeven made Starship Troopers, a satirical science-fiction companion to this modern European classic. --Gary S. Dalkin Amazon.com

The New Nobility of Europe will come from the Resistance.

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. January 12, 2008

A movie made with a lot of 'heart'. Bold, naive and Dutch in positve way.

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!!! December 31, 2007

Soldier of Orange

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. July 4, 2007

One of my Favorite Films...............

I REALLY DO LOVE THIS FILM...............I WATCH IT ABOUT ONCE A YEAR AND ENJOY IT EVERY TIME...........HOWEVER , AS A REALITY CHECK , I SAW IT FOR THE FIRST TIME AT A FILM FESTIVAL HERE IN PORTLAND , OREGON IN 1978........IN THE AUDIENCE WAS MY FILM PROFESSOR AT THE TIME , ANDRIES DEINAM.............HE WAS FROM THE NETHERLANDS AND IMMIGRATED TO THE US IN 1939...........HE ENLISTED IN THE US ARMY AND THEY SENT HIM TO LONDON TO BE PART OF THE DUTCH RESISTANCE............HE WORKED WITH THE O.S.S. , WHICH BECAME THE C.I A...........WHEN THE LIGHTS CAME UP AT THE END , I ASKED HIM WHAT HE THOUGHT ABOUT IT.........HE SAID , "TERRIBLE......TOO MANY GIRLS........" ALTHOUGH THE FILM IS BASED ON FACT , PROBABLY HE HATED THE ROMANTICIZED PORTIONS OF THE FILM........YET IT IS GREAT ENTERTAINMENT ! January 10, 2007

"Even if they die, they will keep the Nazis busy for months."

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 June 30, 2005

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