Directed by: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.
Starring: Susan Radder, Tom Felton, Gijs Blom, Jamie Flatters
The beast is more dangerous when wounded.
That was exactly what happened with the Third Reich army when it was obvious that the war would be lost. The last Nazi strongholds were also the toughest, so the job of the Allied forces was not an easy one, even in late 1944. This movie is talking about one of those “small” battles leading to the taking of the strategic port of Antwerp in the north east of the Netherlands.
The plot follows 3 different stories.. One, of an RAF pilot who loses his plane in an air attack and somehow manages to crawl through enemy lines and join the Canadian troops on the other side of the waterway. After this near death situation, he will face a second one as he joins the Canadian soldiers in the actual battle for the small town of Walcheren, after that the way to Antwerp will be wide open for the Allies.
The second story is about a local girl and her circumstantial involvement in the resistance after her brother, who was a crucial member of the local resistance cell, was captured, tortured and then killed by Nazis. As an act of anger for her brother’s death, she is obtains some vital tactical maps from the local Nazi headquarters and tries to personally deliver them to the Allies going through a dangerous enemy path.
Third story is about a German soldier who was injured on the East Front in Russia, then transferred to a desk job in the military headquarters in the same small dutch city. He tries to help the girl from the resistance avenge her brother, but this will be costly for him. He’ll be sent back to the front-this time in this small, forgotten battle of Walcheren. Here is the culmination of the plot where all 3 stories get united in one. It will be a face off of all three characters.
The liberation of this part of the Netherlands was another bloody part of the War. About 10 thousand lives: Allies, Nazis and local civilians. Complete liberation of this European country took an additional 6 months, to mid 1945.
The movie is a very solid war drama with some thrilling and action-filled moments. The expensive production is filmed at a top level. The large battle scenes are visualized so well, all the terror, and fear, and anger, and the fight for survival are so authentic. As well the uniforms, the weapons and the vehicles. All the elements are good and in the right place.
The only problem with this kind of movie is that they never make a return on investment. The cost is by far more than the returns. But no worries. There is always heavy financial support from sources to whom the returning of money is not the first priority.
