Movie Thoughts: The Forgotten Battle (2021)

• Released: 5 June 2021
• Directed by: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.
• Running time: 2 h 4 min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

A WWII movie taking place in the southwestern Netherlands, where we follow three main characters and a quest to deliver secret information on the German armies' whereabouts to the Allies. 

My Thoughts

War movies are not a thing I watch regularly. I've seen a couple and some of them I liked (see: 1917) but outside of that one none of them have really wowed me. I don't particularly watch many Dutch movies, either, despite it being my nationality. But The Forgotten Battle did somewhat peak my interest, so I decided to go with a friend of mine.

It's definitely a good movie, but it also has its downs. What I did like, was mostly the characters. There's Teuntje, whose brother gets killed by the Nazis and who  later goes on the important quest to deliver the intel to the Allies. She was a great character, and I also liked her best friend (Janna?). Then there's William, a reckless English pilot who crash lands and has to evade the Germans to get to the Allies. Then there's Marinus, a soldier on the Nazi side of things who despite his alliance tries to do the right thing a few times. They're all very rounded characters and while you don't root for all of them (obviously), they do feel like real people. Oh, Tom Felton also played in this.

The movie also did do a really good job of just capturing how cold, gray and wet the Netherlands (particularly the coast) can be in late fall/early winter. I often times can't tell about how other countries have been depicted in film when I haven't been there (for a long time) but since I'm a Dutch native: they perfectly captured the feel and atmosphere. I could just feel the dampness and uncomfortableness of the soldiers.

The effects were also really good. I mean, its one of the most expensive Dutch movies so far, so it definitely should look good, but I definitely appreciated it all looking great and not having any complaint about the visuals. Yeah, if you're looking for a movie with beautiful colors, don't come here, because it's mostly gray and blueish, but that's just how the Netherlands is in winter. 

Honestly, my main gripe with the movie was its length. I don't often have this with movies, but with this one I really started to feel the running time in the cinema and got the urge to check my phone for the time. I didn't have this at all with 1917, which is almost equally long, but here I just felt like things really took its time.

Overall, definitely a good movie. War movies still are far from my favorite genre, but I'm glad I watched it nonetheless. Since this is a (primarily) Dutch movie, I don't know when/if it'll get an international release, but if it does and it sounds like it's your thing, maybe check it out.