Paul Verhoeven has made an excellent movie, the script is interesting and the actors are very good.
The main reproach I'll do to this production is in the first place to fall in the actual pit of thinking that the more you put realistic and gore shots in a movie, the better it is. We all know what the Gestapo's murderers and torturers were capable of doing to their victims. Is it necessary to see those acts of pure sadistic behavior? Absolutely not. They bring nothing to action. The same applies to the first scene with students dinner.
The second reproach is that some situations which I'm absolutely sure could not occur in the relations between Erik Lanshof and Susan as well as his friend Guus.I doubt that in real situation Susan as a secretary of a high ranking officer like Colonel Rafelli, would have intimate relationships with his subordinates. Her familiarity in the presence of her superior is quite impossible. Moreover in the 40s women in these jobs were very cautious and rather prudish. I doubt also that those guys would have such disrespectful conducts before the Queen of Holland, with crude language etc. Many scenes could have been suppressed which would have shortened the movie which is much too long(2h35 minutes); this would have given a more dynamic movie.
The main reproach I'll do to this production is in the first place to fall in the actual pit of thinking that the more you put realistic and gore shots in a movie, the better it is. We all know what the Gestapo's murderers and torturers were capable of doing to their victims. Is it necessary to see those acts of pure sadistic behavior? Absolutely not. They bring nothing to action. The same applies to the first scene with students dinner.
The second reproach is that some situations which I'm absolutely sure could not occur in the relations between Erik Lanshof and Susan as well as his friend Guus.I doubt that in real situation Susan as a secretary of a high ranking officer like Colonel Rafelli, would have intimate relationships with his subordinates. Her familiarity in the presence of her superior is quite impossible. Moreover in the 40s women in these jobs were very cautious and rather prudish. I doubt also that those guys would have such disrespectful conducts before the Queen of Holland, with crude language etc. Many scenes could have been suppressed which would have shortened the movie which is much too long(2h35 minutes); this would have given a more dynamic movie.