ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Jackson Booth-Millard From director Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Showgirls), this Dutch film was one I found in the book of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, the title made it perfectly obvious what the genre, and I was surprised to see familiar names in the cast, so I was looking forward it. Basically in Leiden, the Netherlands, Erik Lanshof (The Hitcher's Rutger Hauer) was originally one of many freshmen in a fraternity, which saw humiliating initiation rites, this includes a soup fight which ends up with him getting a very bad head injury from a bowl, following this accident he becomes close with fraternity chairman Guus LeJeune (The Living Daylights' Jeroen Krabbé). Guus offers Erik a room at his student house, and having drinks with them all he makes more friends, with Jacques Ten Brinck (Dolf De Vries), Jan Weinberg (Huib Rooymans) and Alex (Derek De Lint), but in September 1939 their peaceful lives are interrupted with the English radio announcement of the war between United Kingdom and Germany, the students wrongly assume that the Netherlands will remain neutral as it did in the First World War. In May 1940 Germany does invade, Jan who is Jewish and Alex who has a German mother join the Dutch army, Erik and Guus are not accepted in the army, so Robby Froost (Eddy Habbema) who has a radio transmitter contacts the Dutch resistance in London, Erik was due to take a flight to London, but Jan gets into trouble with for fighting with some anti-Semitic people, Erik offers him his place on the plane, but Nazi soldiers turn up and they get into fight, Jan is captured while Erik manages to escape. After finding out Alex is fighting alongside the Germans in the SS, Erik does get captured, Jan is executed, while Robby and his radio transmission is discovered, he is forced by the Nazi police into being a spy otherwise his girlfriend Esther (Belinda Meuldijk) who is Jewish may come to harm, and meanwhile Erik and Guus get away and manage to successfully travel to London. Once there Van Der Zanden (Guus Hermus) who was thought to be a traitor Erik tries to kill, but in fact he is part of the Dutch Central Intelligence Service and in links with Queen Wilhelmina (Andrea Domburg), she requests the two Dutch men to find more resistance leaders who could be important helping in the battles, and both men individually end also having an affair with British soldier Susan (Susan Penhaligon), also secretary to Colonel Rafelli (The Day of the Jackal's Edward Fox). Guus returns to the Netherlands for the leaders, and Erik follows after to collect them, but the Germans are waiting with Robby on a beach, and he sees for himself Alex part of the Nazi party, he avoids trouble and Robby realises the collaboration going on, but the leaders are killed, Guus swims into the sea and escapes, while Erik reaches the British ship and heads back to London and to Susan. Guus does meet Robby, and shoots him dead in the middle of the street, and later Guus is caught and beheaded, Alex is killed in Russia by a boy who he refused to give him food when he throws a live hand grenade, and Erik joins the RAF to drop bombs over Germany, he is eventually appointed assistant to the Dutch Queen, he finds Esther who had her hair cut short for her and Robby collaborating with the Nazis, and in the end, with fellow students and Jacques who also survived Erik celebrates the end of the war. Also starring Peter Faber as Will Dostgaarde, Lex Van Delden as Nico, Rijk De Gooyer as Gestapo-man Breitner and Paul Brandenburg as SS Lt. Thelen. Hauer and Krabbé are marvellous in the leading roles speaking both their native languages and good English as the do everything they can to help the war effort, Fox is good appearing for his time as the English head of the British military, and Penhaligon is likable as the female officer who both the Dutch men have a fling with. Verhoeven directs this film splendidly, and with Dutch, German and English language it has good authenticity to it, it is based on the true story of the real escapades of Erik Lanshof and the invasion of Holland, it works well with both the character stories and adventures, and of course for the fantastic battle sequences filled with guns and explosions aplenty, it is definitely a Second World War drama to see. It was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film. Very good!

gizmomogwai Yes, Paul Verhoeven, before making Hollywood science fiction schlock (albeit entertaining) movies like Starship Troopers and Hollow Man, once made what are considered some of the Netherlands' classic films. Why he would give that up seems obvious as well as sad. (What sells more tickets?) This is his first Dutch movie I've seen.Soldier of Orange is a story of university students caught in the wake of the Nazi invasion during World War II. Once friends, some join the resistance or attempt to sneak out Jews, others join forces with the Germans. Soldier of Orange is a panoramic, epic kind of movie that attempts to address history in a gritty, realistic way. It doesn't shy away from what's real- nudity and sexuality, graphic violence or bodily functions (a Dutch traitor is using an outhouse when a boy throws a grenade in). Themes of friendship, betrayal and sacrifice are apparent.This is a movie of solid production values and competent storytelling, which is never boring. Conversely, although two and a half hours long, it feels like it skips over or speeds through some of the history- we see the end of the war, but not much of the liberation process, and we've gone from 1944 to 1945 before you know it. Still, for an interesting perspective on World War II in the Netherlands (besides that of the foreign liberators or Anne Frank), this is a film definitely worth a look.

jzappa Paul Verhoeven's signature ironic detachment from the graphic violence in his work has reasonably been attributed to his experiences as a young Dutch child during the Nazi Occupation. What I've always admired about him has been his use of sardonic indifference with films like RoboCop, Starship Troopers and Spetters, but with Soldier of Orange, there doesn't seem to be anything discerning his vision from that of other war film directors who've had less or no eyewitness or everyday experience with war. Though thankfully it is not without unabashed Dutchness---the Queen is anything but strict with her loyal underlings' sense of manners, sex and exhibitionist affection is in no way taboo in any presented dynamic, and Rutger Hauer's response to his sometime lover spitting beer in his face is "I love you"---its framework is, in a sense, American. It is a spy thriller that begins and ends like a coming-of-age film about a circle of aloof, airy friends, some of whom make it to the end and some of whom don't.In some way, upon reflection, I can see how this early effort by Verhoeven, and his two regular pre-U.S. stars Hauer and Jeroen Krabbe, benefits from its incongruous lack of involvement. It is the story of people who don't understand the import of what is truly happening until it literally hits home and find that loyalty grows to be more and more of an illusion. Thus, it seems to aesthetically make a degree of sense for the story to unfold at arm's length, as if we can never quite know who will live, die or turn on us. But still, wouldn't this film be so much better if it did not keep its distance? Isn't it the point for us to feel betrayed and angered by the unraveling of events? In any case, I could still be wrong, as the cliché love triangles, token romantic interests and ignored moral dichotomies of seemingly incidental things certain characters do abound.Perhaps Verhoeven was not yet ready to make the Dutch Resistance film he knew he should make. His filmography can often look like the work of someone who is cynically desensitized to violence and other sorts of cruelty, but it can also often look like the work of someone's defense mechanism against how it has affected him. It wasn't until 2006 when Black Book was released when we saw his true and personal vision of a story set during this time. We have authentic emotional reactions to everything that happens in that tremendous film, which as it turns out is surely Verhoeven's best work, as if his previous films had all been his way of wrestling with the feelings with which he had to come to terms in order to make it, just as the Dutch in this film seem to remain aloof, perhaps in quiet, ambiguous defense of what could happen to them at any moment.

einstein-29 This is one of those amazing war/adventure movies like The Great Escape, or Bridge on The River Kwai, or Stalag 17, that knocks your socks off.I have re-watched it several times over the years, and it never gets old.The action is good. The characters are interesting, and evolving through the film, and the production is very high quality.The characters speak Dutch, English, and German, giving the film a very authentic quality.Highly recommended!