The Forgotten Battle

The Forgotten Battle is a World War II film directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. And written by Paula van der Oest. The film follows a British glider pilot, a Dutch boy fighting on the German side and a Dutch female resistance member who all end up involved in the Battle of the Scheldt that was fought in 1944. Their choices differ, but their goal is the same: freedom. We get to see the battle through these three perspectives, this storytelling is similar to what Christopher Nolan did with Dunkirk. But the similarities kind of ends there, the screenplay is flawed but it's mostly quite great. Where the film succeeds is the cinematography and direction, it's visually a very pleasing movie. It shows how it's become one of the most expensive Dutch films. I thought the film would focus mainly on the battle but I was wrong, it's about the people that the battle and war is affecting, a more human story which I'm totally behind. So it's more character driven than action heavy, but it's of course a war movie and that's shown brilliantly with imagery you'll continue to remember. But with it being focused on three perspectives, the pacing gets worse and it makes the film feel dragged out, story especially as events take too long of a time to build up. Maybe a shorter run time would have helped the film or a different screenplay that focused on mainly two perspectives, the Allies and Axis. But I'll admit that the story arc regarding Teuntje Visser is worthy to be told as it goes hand in hand with Marinus van Staveren's own character arc which is probably the film's best.

The acting in this film was terrific and full of emotion and authenticity. The cast has Gijs Blom as Marinus van Staveren, Jamie Flatters as William Sinclair, Susan Radder as Teuntje Visser and Tom Felton as Tony Turner. Felton being the only actor I recognized who was great in this, but the unknown cast is because how it's a Dutch production which makes The Forgotten Battle even more authentic. I can only give praise to the cast's performances, from the leads to supporting cast to guest stars. Everyone did a terrific job.

Though I did say the script was kind of flawed, there's no lie that Paula van der Oest can write characters and dialogue well. It's where the script is positive, the ability to humanize the German soldiers which often become black and white. With help of the director and actors, the characters are superbly done. The sound design and musical score is brilliant. An average Dutch feature film at the time contained about 500-600 separate audio tracks, while this film has well over 1700. It says something about the production, and some sounds were even arranged by Charles Maynes who did the sound for Clint Eastwood's WW2 film, Letters from Iwo Jima. It's truly award worthy work. Something else that was great is of course the makeup and costume department. The sets, production and art design. Honestly the whole production is impressive. What made me truly love the film was the final 30 minutes or so when all the build up comes together and the big battle is shown, it's everything a battle on this grand scale should be. Chaotic, immersive, engaging and simply just real. It was filmed and edited similarly to the D-Day sequence in Saving Private Ryan which made us feel that we were in the character's shoes in the battle and I felt the same way in this sequence, honestly the entire movie.

The Forgotten Battle isn't meant to romanize war, it shows the horrors of war on all three sides. The Allies, Axis and civilians. It does it perfectly. If it would have shown more of the battle, locations and such, and had a better script and pacing, I would have found the film to be brilliant. With the beautiful cinematography and everything on the technical side being top notch, I can only say that it's great. Solid 9/10 but not a masterpiece.

Being from Belgium myself I found this movie very interesting to watch. De battle for the Schelde (a river in The Netherlands and Belgium that is the main entrance for the harbor of Antwerpen) is strategically very important. For once no battle of the bulge, Normandy, or other famous battles, but one that has not been filmed before. The Netherlands and Belgium don't release a lot of movies but when they do it's most of the time quality, and so is this one. You don't necessary have to have Hollywood budgets to make a good movie. Unknown actors (at least to the wider audience) performed really well in this war/drama. The battle scenes looked very realistic, hard and brutal. But it's not only about the battle scenes, it's also about the oppressor and the oppressed, what people felt like in those days and in that area. Zeeland is a beautiful part of The Netherlands and even though they filmed it in Lithuania (mostly because of budgetary problems) it really looked like Zeeland (a place I visited many times). De Slag Om De Schelde (or The Forgotten Battle for the English title) will please anyone that is interested in WW II, not only for Belgians and Dutch people.

Based on true events in Belgium/Netherlands of Allies recapturing the Port Of Antwerp, and the battle to expel the Germans forces still holding onto the critical North Sea seaport channel (the Scheldt) near the end of WWII in Europe.

The film takes it to the ground and personal level, focused on three young protagonists, a British glider pilot, a Dutch-born German solder, and a Dutch civilian girl.

The film is excellent in every regard, winning multiple Dutch film festival awards including Best Film of 2020.

An intimate portrayal of characters based on true events, this film holds back nothing in telling its story.

I'll leave the synopsis at that so as not to give away too much detail, but worth the view for certain.

Photography, direction, sound editing, casting, acting, battle scenes, and even the thankfully subtle soundtrack fill are all spot on excellent.

*Approximately two-thirds of the dialogue is in English, appropriately interspersed with German and Dutch and clear subtitles, making it an easy watch even for those who avoid subtitle films.

One of the best foreign (Dutch) WWII films you will find, and I highly recommend seeing it.

Wow. I was very surprised by this movie. This is the best movie I have seen about WW2 in a very long time. It really might rank up there with some of the best war movies.

The odd thing is there are so many characters so they really had to crunch for time to develop the characters in the space of two hours. With the various battle sequences along the way.

I just finished watching it and I'm still a bit shocked at how it got to me. Very Good Movie. 8/10.

One of the most expensive Dutch films ever produced and streaming kingpin Netflix's first originally produced film from the Netherlands, The Forgotten Battle is the perfect type of film for the company to support as well as being one of the most well put together war films in their catalogue.

Directed by native Dutchman Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. (whose dabbled in Hollywood efforts like the The Thing), Battle tells the story of the not overly well-known World War 2 battle of Schelde in which allied forces took it to a bare-bones but determined Nazi army that was hellbent on stopping the allied march across Europe capturing ports and cities on their way into the Nazi occupied heartlands.

Splitting the film up into three separate stories that all combine into one cohesive narrative structure, Battle follows Gijs Blom's young Dutch German soldier Marinus who has been sent back to his home country to take part in the fight, Jamie Flatter's newbie British pilot William who has along with his squad been shot down over enemy lines and battling to get back to allied forces and Susan Radder's Walcheren Island native Teuntje who is trying her best to rescue her brother from the clutches of Nazi soldiers.

Offering a wide ranging scope by telling his story this way, Heijningen Jr's film isn't your typical war film that is all battles and brothers and while it has plenty of in your face battlefront carnage and cat and mouse games of life and death, the film provides a neatly observed different lens on the World War 2 front with it far removed from the more Hollywoodized war films that can find themselves front and centre in the genre on regular occasions.

Working with a budget that while significant is still merely catering for big time productions, Heijningen Jr wrings every last dollar out of his films coffers to ensure that Battle feels like a more prestigious than usual Netflix mid-tier release and while it may not offer the big emotional pay-offs or gravitas to make it a must-watch, Battle showcases to viewers and to Netflix as a company the exact type of films it should be investing in when its not throwing 100's of millions of dollars at releases like The Irishman, 6 Underground and the upcoming Red Notice.

Far from a classic World War 2 tale, battle is still high quality war time drama that offers a firsthand look at a largely unspoken about component of the Market Garden operation.

Final Say -

The Forgotten Battle is an above average Netflix release that has rightfully proved to be a decent sized hit for the streaming company and should be sought after by anyone seeking out a quality World War 2 offering (or a chance to see Draco Malfoy battle Nazis).

3 1/2 biscuit tins out of 5.