BR: Dakota (1974)

September 26, 2025 | By Mark R. Hasan

Film: Very Good

Transfer: Excellent

Extras: Excellent

Region: A, B, C

Released: September 16, 2025

Genre: Drama / Suspense

Synopsis: A loner pilot fights to keep his aging DC3 plane in the air and deliver a dangerous cargo across an expansive ocean.

Special Features: Audio Commentary by Film Historian Peter Verstraten / “Dakota” Press Flight (19:14) / Cannes Film Festival 1978 (Vara Visie) (8:16) / Photo Gallery / Scorpio Films Trailers for “Dakota” + “Frank & Eva” + “My Nights with Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julie” + Obsessions” + Blue Movie” + “Pastorale 1948” / Reversible Sleeve Art by Juan Esteban R. / Slipcover.

Review:

After a lengthy and prolific partnership with fellow filmmaker Pim de la Parra, Wim Verstappen’s last formal collaboration for their Scorpio Films shingle was this drama that ran into some extensive problems during production. The prior critical and financial success of Blue Movie (1971) had de la Parra give Verstappen a unique gift: a DC3 airplane. Verstappen soon conceived a drama where a Dutch pilot named Dick (Kees Brusse), experienced in transporting and delivering questionable cargo using a beater DC3, is initially pursued by a woman named Claudia (Monique van de Ven), wanting to pay serious cash for a discrete job. When he eventually takes her offer to ferry cargo over a long distance, his decades of flying experience is tested when a natural attraction to Claudia appears to deepen.

That’s sort of the hook which was fleshed out by writers Charles Gormley, Jan Verstappen, and Harrie Verstappen (as Johnny Rankin), with major rewrites by de la Parra, who felt the director’s original script was lacking. The fiddling and tweaking continued when van de Ven reportedly left the production before her scenes were completed, forcing the filmmakers to rewrite the film’s second half, as well as bump cameraman Theo van de Sande to co-cinematographer when primary cinematographer Jan de Bont left with then girlfriend van de Ven.

Losing a co-star halfway through production was a disastrous twist that could and arguably should have derailed the whole film. According to Dutch film historian and audio commentator Peter Verstraten, the original drama was ostensibly about a self-styled loner whose rigidity to shun relationships is ultimately weakened, and he’s forced to chose between an ongoing life of solitude or breathing some fresh air, and gradually embracing a shift to a more stable life.

Claudia’s early scenes have her following, annoying, teasing, and tempting Dick before (presumably) they fly off with the secret cargo, and presumably there’s an in-flight argument that tests their (possibly) burgeoning relationship, but lacking key scenes, the drama goes in a slightly different direction. Right from the first scene, Verstappen focuses on the myriad minutia of Dick the pilot, with lengthy montages of prepping the plane before takeoffs; tracking journeys and drop-off points; and the epic flight from Suriname to the Dutch island of Amerland. The retained scenes with van de Ven’s build towards her ultimately getting Dick to take the job, but after he steps off a ferry, the character of Claudia vanishes – save for an oblique ‘nightmare’ that Dick has before waking up during the epic flight. That brief footage feels like a salvage of leftover footage, but by this point in the drama, the film is exclusively about whether a pilot’s meticulous planning and stamina will ensure he’ll arrive safely in Holland.

Dick is middle-aged; his plane has seen better years; and he has one functional propeller to get him across an ocean. In addition to a heavy cargo, there are drums of fuel which he must pump into the tank before the engine starts to sputter – and if he sleeps through a rickety clock’s alarm, he’s doomed.

Verstappen apparently regarded Dakota as his best film, and Brusse loved his role as a loner who’s spent years hovering within a gray zone of sketchy deliveries for questionable clients, and remaining unattached and uncomplicated by any close relationships. French New Wave composer Antoine Duhamel’s score seems to emphasize approaching tensions, perhaps written to help propel the wordless flying montages that have both a documentary and silent film tenor, but it also gives the film a weirdly dreamy tone. (It’s a pity the sparse yet memorable score isn’t available on CD.)

Dakota‘s story isn’t a dream, but the minimalist structure pushes Verstappen’s film in that direction, even though he does make use of great locations in Curaçao, Suriname, and Amerland, Frieseland. Dick’s fairly solo existence and metier may have been inspired by the main character in Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Wages of Fear / Le salaire de la peur (1953), where loner Mario (Yves Montand) is similarly stuck in a remote tropical locale, albeit for more serious legal reasons, but where Mario has a relationship with barmaid Linda (Vera Clouzot), Dick just wants to fly, feeling free in the sky, and reinforcing his self-confidence by repeatedly flying solo and transcending whatever chaos comes his way. Dick also moves with relatively total freedom, since he’s not wanted by the law, and his biggest headache is cashing cheques. Clients arguably come to him because his life is uncomplicated – besides sleeping, eating, drinking, and getting an occasional shave & haircut, flying is what keeps him alive, and sane.

When Dick reaches Amerland and meets up with both colleagues and an old flame, there’s a point where his future as a winged mule of sorts is at a crossroads: Will he attempt to find or rekindle an old romance and stay put? Will he encounter violence should his delivery go wrong? Will he have a destructive affair with sultry Laura (The Lift‘s Willeke van Ammelrooy)? Or go back to flying his wounded plane to an unknown destination?

Jutta Brandestaedter’s editing is tight without rushing through scenes, and there’s a genuine balance between the street scenes in urban areas and the meticulously crafted montages that should please fans wanting the DC3 to be a co-star, be it on the ground or in the air.

Cult Epics’ Blu-ray features a clean transfer of what’s likely the best looking print, and the few repaired breaks kind of add to the film as a rare artifact of indie and eccentric filmmaking, if not a curiosity where an attempt to avoid aborting a costly production pretty much works; if not that, then a lesson in opting for a minimalist approach when your leading lady jumps production, never to be seen again.

Extras include the trailer, reversible sleeve art with the original cartoon-like poster, and two very intriguing featurettes: a flight in the DC3 with press, and a short piece shot at Cannes in 1978 where Verstappen avoids an encounter with a perplexed van de Ven; as he tells the cameraman, ‘She cost me $100,000.’ Both are genuine curios, but the DC3 flight is a bit more interesting for capturing a press stunt that didn’t quite work: reporters pile into the small craft that’s been rebranded with the Scorpio Films name, and in an ironic twist mimicking the film, the pilots land the plane prematurely after an engine has to be switched off. Weirdly intercut in the short’s second half are blink-fast-and-they’re-gone softcore scenes of a foursome, likely from Blue Movie.

The best extra is a hugely informative commentary by historian Peter Verstraten who traces the film’s genesis and production, and where it fits within the Scorpio filmography. He offers background info on both the cast, filmmakers, and the cinematographers whose separate work in Dakota shares a consistent look. Theo van de Sande had already shot a few features solo (including the slick Naked Over the Fence / Naakt over de schutting) and his move to the U.S. would result in stellar work in Miracle Mile (1988), Body Parts (1991), Wayne’s World (1992), and Blade (1998). Jan de Bont’s work with director Paul Verhoeven included both his Ducth and U.S. films (Turkish Delight, Katie Tippel, Basic Instinct), and the genre classics Cujo (1983) and Die Hard (1988).

Verstappen’s films as director with de la Parra include De minder gelukkige terugkeer van Joszef Katus naar het land van Rembrandt (1966), Liefdesbekentenissen (1967), Drop-out (1969), Blue Movie (1971), VD (1972), Dakota (1974), Alicia (1974). Mens erger je niet (1975).

Although Verstappen would make several films (including the 1978 epic Pastorale 1943) before his passing in 2004 at age of 67, the oddness and haunting tone in Dakota makes it a film to revisit, especially the fine location work and obsessive details of flying a DC3.