Baantjer: Het begin

Skimming rapidly over choices of what to watch I stumbled upon this little diamond in the rough. It's becoming increasingly difficult to find anything to watch these days. The entertainment industry has gone from bad to worse in recent years notably in terms of quantity versus quality. There's no shortage of what to watch but most of it's terrible. This title could have easily been looked over and lost in the thick sauce of half baked productions. But no, it came in much better than expected. And my demands are very high seeing that I lived in Amsterdam in the late 70s. I am also a stickler for historical accuracy. This one has it right nicely down to the old pre-euro currency denominations in Holland and Belgium as well as Amsterdam cop cars and uniforms of the era. Even the landmarks of a more trivial nature hold their own such as the location of one of the city's hospitals and a "telefoon" booth overlooking a RLD canal in the Jordaan (don't quite recall if there was one). The car models, license plates and taxi meters all accurate. Long story short this crime drama was incredibly accurate and directed by someone who takes great pride in depicting Amsterdam of the 80s. There were a few too many generic labyrinth like non existent alleyway scenes but otherwise historical punctuality in my opinion. I would have liked to have seen a few more easily identifiable streets such as Warmoesstraat and Zeedijk depicted but close enough. The plot built around a Buddy cop team with a ball busting chief was also quite formulaic. But not to worry there's a pretty decent twist thrown in and the plot layers mesh well too. All in all a groot thumbs up voor this one.

OK, this is not bad for Dutch standards but I don't like it either. At least it doesn't have a cast of all the popular teen soap stars of the moment like most Dutch movies. But apart from the main character being called Jurriaan de Cock this has nothing to do with the Baantjer books. It seems they only adopted this name because it's very popular in the Netherlands, but this Jurriaan de Cock seems to be a completely different person than the one from the books. Cheap action flick, film noir, blah

This Dutch film is set in 1980, at the time of the coronation of Queen Beatrix. Detective Jurre de Cock has just transferred from a small village; he is partnered with Amsterdam native Detective Tonnie Montijn. Tonnie introduces him to the seedier side of the city; the red light district and the various squats. De Cock soon learns that this is a place where the police are expected to take backhanders and brutal suppression of squatters and activists is considered acceptable. After chasing a suspect de Cock finds a body in one of the city's canals; Tonnie suggests it is just some drunk who fell in but as the case progresses it soon becomes clear it was murder... possibly part of a plot to attack the coronation. To complicate matters for de Cock he starts to take a romantic interest in Tonnie's sister, Pein, who is with the protesters; something that could but them both in danger.

I thought this was a solid, gritty thriller. It has the feel of a '70s cop drama; which is appropriate as it is set only a few months into 1980. The story works well with introductions to key characters before the discovery of the body sets the plot rolling. There are some good twists as the story progresses; these came as a genuine surprise to me. There is some action; a foot chase through the red light district; rioting and some shooting but no cliché car chases or explosions. The cast does a fine job most obviously Waldemar Torenstra as de Cock, Tygo Gernandt as Tonnie and Lisa Smit as Pien. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of gritty police dramas.

These comments are based on watching the film in Dutch with English subtitles.

But it's still one of the best Dutch productions and greatest movies our country has to offer. It's a good story, the cinematography is great and the acting supurb. Especially Tygo Gernandt, who plays his role magnificently!

Amsterdam in the early 80's. Great acting, suspense and good story. Really enjoyed this!