A hard to rate movie.
I have to rely on stories my granddad told me serviing in theDutch Indies during that time. I have digged into the history, but i have to admit: Dutch eduction failed in the time I went to school about this subject.
The movie started with a coming home trip of the soldiers. I doubt that scene was close to history accuracy. Didnt fit the period of time. Looked more like the 80's or the 2020's the way people acted. But ok, I see why the scene was added.
The first part of the storyline was actually pretty good. I did vividly see my granddad up there. The boys getting klapper for the soldiers (klapper = coconut in the Indies). And yes the soldiers were just walking around to "protect Dutch property". Please notice the quote marks. In the second half the story goes beserk. I doubt there was a team doing the things shown in the movie. This said, I have no doubts whatsoever, the Dutch stepped way across the line of what we call , hmmzz good. Lots of innocent civilians were simply murdered.
But it was clearly were the director gots his inspiration of: not history books (well, there arent many history books describing these dark pages of Dutch history), but movies like Platoon, Rambo, Deerhunter, Once upon in America (yes, too clear to not notice) and series like Tour of Duty.
But I still gave this movie a 7. Why? Well it is good someone tried to make a movie of this part of history. Besides that, the acting was overall pretty good and the camera work was above Dutch quality. The storyline, being historical accurate or not, was also good, and by being not chronological (did I already mention you can compare it to Once upon a time in America) it got even better.
Also the thin line between good and bad was a good thing. The director, despite of his background didnt pick really picked sides and gave the viewer enough space to make his or hers own opinion.
So I was surprised of the end result and I have to say, this might be one of the best Dutch movies I have ever seen, with actors not that well known in the Netherlands.
