Merah Putih

I have just seen this movie in Australia (with English sub-titles) and thought it was great. My Bahasa Indonesia was not adequate to judge the quality of the Indonesian script, but I saw it with fluent Indonesian speakers, and they thought the movie was very good also. The acting was excellent, and the story was interesting as it showed the revolution from a more human perspective than we usually see. When it finished, everyone in the theatre was saying that they could not wait for the second film in the trilogy. I don't know what "blabberbrat" was talking about when he/she said there were no war scenes!!! Two armies running around shooting each other, people being killed all over the place, locals' houses being burnt, trucks being blown up and so on.....what was that if not war? That's what war in the jungle is like, apparently, not the glamourised rubbish that comes out of Hollywood. Bring on the second movie, I'm dying to see what happens to Amir and his wife (she still hasn't told him about the baby!), Tomas & Senja (hmm.....do I see a romance coming?)& will Marius turn out to be a good human being in the end? And will we learn what Dayan is all about? Oh, and yes, Indonesia will become a republic (I know the ending there!).

A big budget movie, with a great casts and crew, great promotion & gimmick..I get a red-white mini flag in cinema entrance, such a sweet give away..

But all will be waste, if you don't have a strong script to begin with. A lot of home works are not done by writers and I have a guess, they don't really like history in their school. And this is not because the writers are not local Indonesian

If I can compare, at the same time, we have 'MERANTAU" that have a local content as much as MERAH PUTIH, written & directed by non-Indonesian guy and the result is superb... Merah Putih is big suck! They need to learn more about our history or consult with the expert or whatever need to be done since the budget is not the issue, hopefully before the 2nd and 3rd installment out.

I still have faith for this movie..Hope I am not wrong this time.

I love the story (since it's fiction, it doesn't relate to any particular history plot), but it still relevant to general idea of Indonesian colonized era. The characters are also interesting, strengthening by great actors to name Lukman Sardi, Donny Alamsyah, Darius, and even model/scandalous governor (Zumi Zola). This is the first time I enjoy Indonesian drama-action. It must included some foreigners as directors or at least for special effects. I don't see a lot of good Indonesian movies, but as I can remember, Indonesian movie are all about panorama motion pictures (other than ghost or tacky-comedy related). So, this movie is pretty standout. It is disappointing that the last two sequels didn't show at foreign countries. CMIIW, but I think the estimated budget for this movie was over USD6 millions.

Timing was so perfect...only a few days away from the independence celebration..

The theme and genre was longed by the market...

The marketing effort has managed to create such an awareness and expectation to get people flocking in with such level of curiosity and anticipation...

The idealism and all that jazz are there..

But...this motion picture failed in delivering its promises...

Yes...we are all waiting for some quality local pictures to come to our cinemas..

Casts were those of high quality...

But, could I believe the way the plot was carried out...after one hour I haven't even seen any war scene; and this was suppose to be a war movie..

cinematography was awful...they're keep overusing close-ups even for scenes that needs something like a bird-eye's view or something with a broader angle..

Storyline was way too cliché and the dialogs are all jumbled...

I think what they really wanted to show was how that different colors of the archipelago managed to gone through all their differences, joined together by a noble cause and coming out as a band-o'-brothers..

I can't believe this how this movie had ruined such a perfect occasion and wasted so many talents (on and off screen as well).

For goodness sake...work on the storyline, people!!

As a dutch citizen and war veteran I have a different look at this movie. I do not approve of this situation end colonization in general. That is an issue of generations past, but do have an aversal to this ill display of dutch conscripts in general. Most of these boys were shipped here just after been enslaved by the third Reich and just wanted business as usual. The dutch had these isles for three hundred years and considered these isles as dutch soil. Dutch conscripts just acted in honor to there background. There obviously are bad apples on the Dutch side, but there where bad apples on both sides. Since 60 years have past. nuances would be made clearer and both viewpoints should have been made more clear. In general a good movie in my view, but in staid of South African barely Dutch speaking actors. Dutch natives should be used.

Best regards, Arjan