Black Book - Film Review
Dutch film director Paul Verhoeven has been making a living on lurid, box-office-friendly Hollywood thrillers for some time now. Characterised by a sort of polished sleaziness mixed with frank violence, these films have never been particular favourites of the critics, but nevertheless, their pure entertainment value has led to many of them going down as cult favourites (RoboCop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Starship Troopers, Showgirls). In Holland, Verhoeven is more highly regarded - his breakthrough 1973 film Turkish Delight was voted Dutch Film of the Century in 1999. Perhaps it’s fitting then that, in his return to his homeland, he should abandon robots, strippers and aliens for the more serious subject matter of the Dutch World War II Resistance.
With a title like Flags of Our Fathers, you’d expect this World War II flick to be a chest-thumping glorification of American valour and sacrifice. And you’d be right… kind of. But this is no Saving Private Ryan. Although it certainly commemorates the bravery and tribulations of American soldiers, Clint Eastwood’s film is very specific about where the audience’s admiration should be focused: the individual soldiers themselves – not the political and military machine that threw them into combat. 