In Theaters: Black Book
Black Book:
To say much of anything would be to risk spoiling this excellent WWII thriller, since part of what is so marvelous about it are the plot and character twists. The short summary is: a young Jewish woman goes under-cover as the lover of a high ranking SS officer to gain information for the resistance. It’s fast-paced and interesting. It is NOT however, subtle or understated. Verhoeven delights in the (I think legitimate) opportunities for High Drama intrinsic to his subject matter, though I’m sure he plays fast and loose with precise historical facts.
That said, the film does have some level of nuance. I especially appreciated the depiction of the resistance. They were not a buddy-buddy gang of idealists and bosom friends. Some of them were notably prejudiced against Jews-after all, approving of genocide is very different from being totally unprejudiced. Some of them were just patriots who simply wanted the Nazis out of their country and didn’t particularly care about the plight of Jewish people under the Reich. Similarly, Verhoeven didn’t shy away from showing the ugly side of the victorious ‘good guys’ or a glimmer of humanity in some of the ‘bad guys.’
Spoilers: DO NOT READ UNTIL SEE MOVIE!!! Now, I just have to say that I fell utterly and totally in love with Muntz, though that is perhaps a flaw of the film. He was almost too lovable from the beginning. That said, judging from his age he was probably a career military officer before the Reich came to power, so it is possible that he didn’t fully support all elements of their regime and, like many people, didn’t realize what he had gotten involved with until later when backing out was suicide. I’ll suspend disbelief.
It completely broke my heart when he died. I desperately wanted the utterly improbable ending of the SS Officer and the Jewish resistance chick living happily ever after together. Sigh….
To sum up: If you like thrillers, mysteries or WWII movies, this is not one you should miss.
To say much of anything would be to risk spoiling this excellent WWII thriller, since part of what is so marvelous about it are the plot and character twists. The short summary is: a young Jewish woman goes under-cover as the lover of a high ranking SS officer to gain information for the resistance. It’s fast-paced and interesting. It is NOT however, subtle or understated. Verhoeven delights in the (I think legitimate) opportunities for High Drama intrinsic to his subject matter, though I’m sure he plays fast and loose with precise historical facts.
That said, the film does have some level of nuance. I especially appreciated the depiction of the resistance. They were not a buddy-buddy gang of idealists and bosom friends. Some of them were notably prejudiced against Jews-after all, approving of genocide is very different from being totally unprejudiced. Some of them were just patriots who simply wanted the Nazis out of their country and didn’t particularly care about the plight of Jewish people under the Reich. Similarly, Verhoeven didn’t shy away from showing the ugly side of the victorious ‘good guys’ or a glimmer of humanity in some of the ‘bad guys.’
Spoilers: DO NOT READ UNTIL SEE MOVIE!!! Now, I just have to say that I fell utterly and totally in love with Muntz, though that is perhaps a flaw of the film. He was almost too lovable from the beginning. That said, judging from his age he was probably a career military officer before the Reich came to power, so it is possible that he didn’t fully support all elements of their regime and, like many people, didn’t realize what he had gotten involved with until later when backing out was suicide. I’ll suspend disbelief.
It completely broke my heart when he died. I desperately wanted the utterly improbable ending of the SS Officer and the Jewish resistance chick living happily ever after together. Sigh….
To sum up: If you like thrillers, mysteries or WWII movies, this is not one you should miss.