For a Lost Soldier
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DVD details
Actor: Andrew Kelley, Elsje de Wijn, Freark Smink, Jeroen Krabbé, Maarten SmitBrand: REL
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Dutch (Original Language); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Running Time: 92 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-05-31
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Strand Releasing
DVD Reviews of For a Lost Soldier
DVD Review: Well made film about a powder keg sexual issue
Summary: 4 Stars
For a Lost Soldier is a quiet little film about subject matter that no American filmmaker would touch with a ten foot pole. It is a touchy matter even by international standards. However, somehow the Dutch are able to address the issue of love between a man and a boy without making it purile and scandalous. Dutch filmmakers seem to be the only ones able to touch such "iffy" subject matter and make it far less "oogy" than it could be.
First of all, this really isn't a movie about sex or sexuality so much as it is a film about love and loss. That is why it works.
The time is the early 1940's. The place is Amsterdam and rural areas outside of Amsterdam. The situation is that Amsterdam is suffering from the Nazi occupation and the lack of supplies this has brought about. Residents of Amsterdam are shipping their children off to the country to live and work on farms so that they will have food to eat and a warm bed in which to sleep.
This is very frightening stuff if you allow yourself to be transported as one of the children. They've been uprooted and shipped away from home to live with strangers, who may or may not be kind to them. They have fear as a constant companion as they worry about their parents and about the sounds of war in the distance.
Our protagonist, Jeroen, is a fresh faced boy of 12 and he has been placed with a family who actually wanted a girl not a boy. While the family is basically kind to him, Jeroen doesn't understand farm life and is slow to adjust. His "best" friend is another boy, by a year or two, who has been uprooted and sent to the country as well. The older boy is obviously in the throes of puberty, whereas Jeroen really hasn't hit that point in his physical development. Still prepubescent by a few months or so, Jeroen doesn't understand the lust for the girls and would rather be companions with other boys. He hasn't yet developed that male female connection that the older boys have. He and his friend wander the countryside and discover a plane that has crashed in the water (killing its occupants). This is the first time that Jeroen sees the naked body of a boy/man. This is also a turning point for him. He is made to realize that being naked with another boy is not something normal - "Don't tell them you saw me naked" his friend tells him.
Later, Canadians arrive on the scene and liberate the residents of the countryside town. They are all ecstatic and grateful for the newfound freedom. The young women and the expatriated Amsterdam girls quickly flirt with the young soldiers. This provides them with chocolates and coca colas as well as sexual perks for the soldiers.
This also brings about the films' greatest flaw. As viewers, we can comprehend where the filmmakers are going with the subject matter. However, on screen the transition from acquantaince to lover between Jeroen and one of the soldiers isn't as straightforward as one would expect. Undoubtedly, even the Dutch will allow only so much to be revealed of such touchy subject matter.
Jeroen and one of the soldiers, Walt, strike up a hesitant friendship. It is quite plain that Walt is flirting with the boy, but what is also quite plain is that not only is Jeroen flirting, knowingly right back, but that he seems to be taking the lead in relationship developing beyond just simple platonic relations.
Walt is identified as gay by a couple of statements he makes. "I thought right from the start that you were my kind of boy, Jeroen." That is actually rather creepy, since it means that Walt is truly a pedophile. However, Jeroen knows what Walt means. He's come to realize (and so have we) that Jeroen is gay as well. He may not have ever been with another boy before, but he knows who and what he is.
When the sexual aspect of the relationship is actually consummated, it is handled so subtly that you might miss it. What is somewhat mystifying however, is that the soldiers under Walt seem to know what is transpiring between he and the boy and they pass no judgment nor do they do anything to prevent or stop it.
Anyway, when the soldiers pull out of Holland it is quick and Walt isn't man enough to face up to the fact that he will leave behind him a boy who is desperately in love with him. He sneaks off during the night. Jeroen is destroyed. It is only his mother's reappearance that helps him make it through the situation. However, it is also her reappearance that causes him to state that he is moving to Canada. We know he wants to find Walt.
Most telling of all is that the film is actually a flashback - a rememberance - by Jereon as an adult, a (supposedly) gifted coreographer, who is creating a dance for the fortieth anniversary of Holland's liberation from the Nazis. He can't get the dance steps right and it is only through his memory of his time with Walt that he can bring the beautiful dance to life.
There are a couple more, quite poignant moments that occur that I will not tell you about, because they should bring a few tears to your eyes, from joy and sadness.
If you can get past the subject matter as we view it today, and focus on the fact that this is still a love story - one of unrequited, or rather unfulfilled, love, you will find yourself enjoying it quite a bit.
The language is primarily Dutch, with a few lines of English here and there.
Description of For a Lost Soldier
Synopsis:Item Type: DVD Movie
Item Rating: ""NR
Street Date: 05/31/02
Wide Screen: no
Director Cut: no
Special Edition: no
Language""ENGLISH
Foreign Film: no
Subtitlesno
Dubbed: no
Full Frame: no
Re-Release: no
Packaging: ""Sleeve""
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