It’s not a secret. I’ve loved director Paul Verhoeven since I saw Robocop as a mere ten year old. Followed by Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Showgirls and Starship Troopers, I felt this guy could do no wrong. As a wanna-be film student at USC. I actually wrote two huge papers about Verhoeven. As a filmmaker he fascinated me. Here’s a guy from the Netherlands who made films with absolutely no fear. In the bullshit Hollywood film industry where way too many directors and studios wanna play it safe, Verhoeven made films that HE wanted to see. He didn’t care what the ratings board, studios or reviewers thought. He just wanted to make cool, sexy, action packed movies. And I loved him for it.
Mind you, every single one of the films I listed above were originally rated by the MPAA as either X or NC-17. Now, you may not love all or any of his films. But dammit, you gotta respect a guy in a multi-million dollar industry who sticks to his guns and makes what he wants to make. Personally, I love all of those films. Even the cheesy-ass Showgirls has a special place in my heart.
In 2000 Verhoeven finally did the unthinkable. He gave into Hollywood and made a film that was not his own vision, Hollow Man. While this was not a horrible film, it just did not live up to the standards of his pervious work. It wasn’t edgy. It wasn’t sexy (and that’s tough when it stars the ever sexy Elisabeth Shue). And it was just another effects driven Hollywood movie. I was so disappointed when I saw this film. I thought I’d lost my favorite director forever and since Verhoeven didn’t release another film for seven years, I believed his brilliant run was finished.
That was until last night. I had read very little about Black Book. I just knew Verhoeven had made a World War II drama in his native Netherlands. I knew it was controversial (as are all of his films) because of sex, violence and for the first time, a Nazi was a sympathetic character in a film. If you’ve read ay of the reviews for this film or heard any of these one-dimensional hypes, they do not do this film justice.
Set in Holland near the end of the European campaign of WWII, the story revolves around Ellis (Carice van Houten). A young, BEAUTIFUL Jewish woman who is forced to join the Dutch resistance in order to survive after her hiding place (a la Anne Frank) is destroyed and her family is brutally murdered by the Nazis.
Ellis is asked by the resistance to infiltrate a Nazi base after three resistance fighters are captured by the Nazis. Ellis of course cannot look Jewish when she infiltrates the Nazis. So she bleaches her hair blonde and YES if you’ve read the other reviews, she bleaches her pubic hair as well. But that is like 10 seconds of the film. Verhoeven may have done it for shock value as he has in his other films. But it is also a key element to the plot for Ellis to win over the head Nazi.
Once inside the Nazi base, Ellis seduces the young Nazi leader, Muntze (Sebastian Koch). But in doing so, she realizes Muntze is not a barbarian like most of the Nazis. In fact, Muntze has made a deal with the resistance that he will not kill any captors if the resistance will stop killing Nazis. This of course upsets many of the other Nazi leaders including the ruthless second-in-command, Franken.
Franken tries to overthrow Muntze. There is a mole within the resistance who betrays them. Ellis gets blamed for the murder of multiple resistance fighters. All the while, Ellis and Muntze fall in love. Yes, a Jew and a Nazi fall in love.
I LOVED this film. It was sexy. It was action-packed. The characters were really, really interesting and you cared about what happened to each and every one of them. Carice van Houten is amazing. Not only is she absolutely gorgeous, but her growth in the film from frail, hiding Jewish girl to hardcore resistance spy is astounding.
The story is also captivating and engaging. How many WWII movies have we all seen? But all of them focus on the U.S. and the Brits. What about all he other poor countries that were annihilated by this conflict? I didn’t know anything about the Nazi invasion of Holland.
Plus, the addition of making the Nazis REAL characters really made the film more realistic. You knew why the bad guys were bad. You knew that not all the good guys were good. Every character has their own rich and deep story that makes every character feel hat much more real.
FINAL ANALYSIS!
This film is long. It clocks in at 2 hours and 30 minutes. It is also almost completely in foreign language. There are a few English scenes but most are in German or Dutch. All that being said, if you want to see a GREAT film, with GREAT acting, lots of good action and sexy women, plus some real deep and engaging characters, then go see this film.
SEE THIS MOVIE!
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