Max Havelaar of de koffieveilingen der Nederlandsche handelsmaatschappij

in making this film, rademaker opened up old dutch colonial wounds, dormant except for the novel, helped promote a good NGO cause, & exposed native corruption that continues into present indonesia. the max havelaar foundation was ahead of its time in promoting fair trade & continues to take a leadership role today. in the film, havelaar represents the idealist side of both dutch colonial rule & protestant ethos in the face of corruption & hypocrisy toward that global enterprise. aside from a brilliant film, powerful scenery & location, excellent acting, rademaker wove the narration close to the well-known novel. appropriate for its time,this film fits well with European self-examination of its colonial past, resonates with pontecorvo's burn/queimada, a masteropiece of duplicity & brando at his prime!

In my opinion, this is one of the most powerful, beautiful and magnificent movies ever made, on every possible level: the way the story has been adapted from the book, to its incredible cinematography, character depiction, and the sensitive awareness of the complexities in the situation it describes, i.e., the finally brutal Dutch colonizing of Indonesia.

The contrasts between the beauty of the islands and its people with the horror of the disastrous situations brought on by the Dutch, are enormously moving and emotionally wrenching. Be careful about seeing it: it may change your life, as the book it was based on started to change Holland's awareness of the price, to themselves and the people of the islands, of its exploitation of these defenseless peoples. Never seen anything better, really.

I was able to rent the DVD of this film from a place in Portland, Oregon. They had a copy of the original and seemed to believe the film had been placed in the public domain, available to be copied. You might want to check on that yourself. If that is true, it could be that you would be able to purchase a copy yourself. I'm not sure how the law of public domain applies to films created the 1980's since I would imagine the copyright would have been renewed somehow by 2008. Does anyone else have information regarding this?

I had not heard of this film before visiting this rental place but was looking for the films of Verhoeven when I stumbled on this one directed by Fons Rademakers. It seemed especially apropos since both my parents were Dutch-Indonesian and their parents were part of the latter days of Dutch colonial culture. It wasn't until Indonesian independence that my grandparents were persuaded to leave that beautiful land for the rainy gloomy weather of the Netherlands. After 25 years in the humid summers and bitter winters of Detroit, I ended up in Portland, where the weather is much more like Holland. Go figure!

The problem of some peoples of South Asia and Africa was that of their intrinsic corruption, their poor culture and great ignorance which made these peoples non-productive and incapable of everything slaves.

Even today these countries are horrible in all existing statistics.

European colonialism has always improved and brought great techniques and great culture, but men with blinkers do not understand good things, and follow evil and horrible traditions. As it was in Indonesia, it is still one of the worst countries in Asia today.

The film is good, has great intentions of justice, and is also very realistic.

I saw this film once, thirty years ago, when it first came out. It was regarded as avantgarde at the time, and was shown in a small "alternative" movie theaters in Aarhus, Denmark. I have never forgotten the power of this film, and can remember it in amazing detail, in particular the ending. No, it's not a happy film, full of complete heroes who win the day. It is like the world today, and is as relevant now as it was then. I can remember that it was one of the rare films that did not have a musical score. The sound was what actually took place; the sound of machinery,walking, the weather, music played in the film. It is sad that this seems to have become a forgotten film. I don't know one other person who has seen this film. It is unknown and unavailable in all the local movie rental places. Not even Netflex had a copy. I would love to see this film again, and if anyone knows how to get a copy I hope they post that info here. Brian