Tuxedos and tails are a recurring item of clothing. Initially worn by the group of male uni students at parties, signifying their upper class status. Later as World War II leads to Holland being invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany, the tuxedo is used by resistance members reentering their own country, passing themselves as members of a party at a seaside hotel. Based on the novel by Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema and his experiences, Soldier Of Orange (1977) was directed by Paul Verhoeven, and the most expensive Dutch movie at that point and a success. It’s both a drama about male university friends whose alliances are separated and cast aside by the winds of war, observing how fascism, invasion and occupation happens upon Holland, and it’s a ‘men on a mission’ WW2 movie with the composer’s derring-do theme, as two of the main characters played by Rutger Hauer and Jerome Krabbe become resistance fighters moving back and forth between England and their home country under Nazi rule.
Flashes of Verhoeven’s thematic interest in bodies and flesh, the sex scenes and nudity, and the interest in always including a memorable corporeal detail like a Nazi interrogation using an enema device on a prisoner, or Hauer rubbing grease on his torso before swimming to shore. Like with a lot of WW2 movies decades after the conflict, there is the use of actual planes and vehicles from the era, and period recreation crowd scenes. And dark touches. Would be interesting to revisit Verhoeven’s later period WW2 movie Black Book and the way he plays into his auteur compulsions, even as he returns to the historical action movie material like Soldier Of Orange, which helped garner his growing reputation as director. Good cast including a guest starring Edward Fox, but it’s mainly the young and dashing Hauer and Krabbe who make the strongest impression. Shot by Jost Vocano, long term collaborator who was also cinematographer on Robocop, Total Recall, Showgirls, Starship Troopers.
Available to watch on Rarefilmm and Tubi. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 