Doodslag

Very intelligent movie with the art film moments. Excellent acting, very good European camera school, good editing. Can't find anything bad about it. Casting was superb and actor who plays Max was just made for this role. Great drama and hard social question about the world we live in with the pretty critical answer suggested. Moral dilemmas in the world without moral are turning against our hero. Then, heroism is relative and changeable in time but money stays the main master. Power of mass control presented by the character of an evil showman looks exactly as the world we live in controlled and operated by mass media. It twists and turns the public opinion when needed and by that controls the moral values by its material needs and not by the need for true. What happens to an honest man as Max in such world is getting lost and then losing himself. Very intelligent portrait of the modern world moral values versus a good man. And one more thing: the movie is definitely not a thriller.

'Doodslag' (which translates to Manslaughter) tells us the story of Max, a veteran ambulance-driver who gets driven to mental breakdown. The build up of the story is quite fast, and after some minor incidents showing Max getting disrespected and even made fun of on national television by a famous comedian it eventually leads up to the unintended death of a young street thug. On their way to a emergency delivery Max (and his new colleague (Amira, portrayed by Maryam Hassouni)get stopped by a group of street youth when their friend had a accident and has superficial headinjuries. The tension builds up, and with all the stress Max has to cope with he snaps, hits one of the guys who falls on the curb and dies on the spot. Max is sent to prison for one year, but it doesn't stop there. The friends of the street thug are bound for vengeance, and start threatening and harrasing him. In the mean time the comedian that made fun of him earlier finds himself feeling sorry for his actions, and hires Max as his personal driver.

I found this movie to be very intelligent and uncomprimizing. This film shows the degrading of society (emergency personell frequently get harassed in the Netherlands these days) but it does not judge whether Max is a criminal or a hero. The Maassen reprises a strong role (after his first movie: TBS) and I think no other Dutch actor can portray such a dark and gritty character. Maryam Hassouni also portrays an excellent role as Amira and I also see a bright future for her acting career as well.

I also find the directing very good, I am only guessing why the 2nd chapter is in black and white. The only reason I can think of is some 'artsy' addition or something. The soundtrack is also very good, and fits the film very well.

Overall I would say this is a must see, and another gem of Dutch cinematography. These don't come around very often.

9/10

Grading this movie with a "five" means grading as "doubtful".

Why?!

The Movie starts with a quote from a Prime Minister from the Netherlands (from 08/10/2010 until 23/04/2012). A free translation of this quote: "We want to reclaim society from the bastards".

I resent that kind of promotion of collective fear, especially because of the way it came across to me in this movie.

In the beginning I was able to recognize what was happening; after several drawbacks and being torn between being considered to be a hero and a criminal … the main character "Max" snaps … BUT … how this turns out in the end, was very unlikely.

I believe the film should have ended at the point where he drew a gun on those young bastards that were harassing him all the time. One of the intentions of Max was to balance the escalation level of this degenerated conflict … I do not think that there would have been any other way … the law really does protect bastards too much I guess.

Alas, Max kept on degenerating after that, and this is where I felt it became doubtful … because how to reclaim society from the bastards when people like Max also become a bastard?! Until then, I think that he truly made a pretty successful effort to act sane!

On top of that … I really wonder whether these annoying boys or Max represent the TRUE bastards of society …

I guess not … and I do feel that all bastards are basically full of fear … and that the enemy is within US … and it's called FEAR as well … the FEAR for the need to defend yourself in situations as depicted in this movie, and … the FEAR for yourself to do really bad stuff to other people ... to make a true effort to find out how "Room 101" needs to be prepared for someone you dearly hate ... an example of the danger of individual FEAR.

Room 101 is a place introduced in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. It is a torture chamber in the Ministry of Love in which the Party attempts to subject a prisoner to his or her own worst nightmare, fear or phobia ... another example of the danger of collective FEAR … the FEAR that this Prime Minister and the movie makers are promoting

Regardless the mediocre acting and cinematography, my prime concern about this movie is the way it portrays the current happenings in the Dutch society, in the hopes of inciting more debate about topics that are already heavily discussed.

I cringed at the scene where Max (an ambulance driver), under pressure of feeling to have to act out against the (unfortunately all too customary) hindrance of and violence against public service personnel, lashed out against a bystander who tried to calm his friend and Max down during a verbal quarrel that resulted because of a group of youth purposely obstructing the ambulance from reaching a woman in labour. This is ridiculous and a perfect example of how politically laden this movie is. There is one particular group of people, with a certain ethnicity that is particularly notorious for the aforementioned obstructive behaviour with regards to public services (and has come under fire for this) and what this film is trying to make clear here is that we should refrain from thinking in black and white (which I agree with), but this entire situation does not reflect reality, at all.

There can be no debate about this: Max deserves to be trialled for manslaughter – he used violence, regardless his motives, against someone who was actually trying to calm things down. This is however, completely unrealistic! I know this from experience and from people who have had jobs at public services. It would've been different, if the people who obstructed the ambulance had attacked Max first, and then Max would have been on trial for manslaughter (and sentenced, which unfortunately happens a lot, as well), which would have made more sense, would have actually reflected reality and relates directly to the debate about how and to what extent people should be able to defend themselves.

This film screams: "you Dutch people are xenophobic and racist and should stop judging people from certain ethnicities". Another horrible example of this is the remark of one of the bystanders, in another instance during which the ambulance personnel is hindered, at Max' co- driver (who happens to be Muslim, but is as Dutch as can be) that "Mecca is that way.". I am ashamed of this atrocity of leftist propaganda that sketches a twisted image of what is happening in the poorer, urban parts of our country (namely the continuous harassment of citizens by people of a certain ethnicity and their continuous perpetration of criminal offenses) for the people who live their lives happily in their ivory towers of the middle and upper class.

In Dutch: deze film slaat de plank volledig mis.

It is a drama film produced in 2012. As a main idea, it tells about immigrant problems and the problems caused by immigrants through the experiences of an ambulance driver. At the same time, it explains the phenomenon of exclusion and psychological collapse quite well.

Yes, there is an ambulance driver. He goes to respond to emergencies with a young female first aid doctor next to him. Over time, the man becomes attracted to the woman. The woman is of Moroccan origin. She cannot accept his exclusion. On the way to another problematic birth case, a group of people stop the ambulance. There is an injured young man. The doctor checks his condition and tells him to go to the hospital. The group is bullying the injured person into taking him into the ambulance. And when the driver gets out to warn the man, he punches someone when he is attacked and continues on his way to make an emergency call. The young man he punched while saving the baby during an emergency call dies. And problems begin for the man.

There is some sexuality in the movie. But there is no nudity.