Max Havelaar of de koffieveilingen der Nederlandsche handelsmaatschappij

An idealistic Dutch colonial officer posted to Indonesia in the 19th century is convinced that he can make the kinds of changes that will actually help the local people he is in charge of, but soon runs into massive corruption on both sides.

MAX HAVELAAR, AN OLD DUTCH MASTERPIECE. VIewed at the Seattle Film Festival, June, 2007 .

Fons Rademaker's Dutch masterpiece "Max Havelaar" (The Netherlands, 1976, RT 170 minutes). Fons Rademaker was perhaps the greatest Dutch director and, based on this towering epic, clearly one of the greatest of all European directors. He died only a few month's ago (in 2007) and "Max Havelaar" is the Seattle film festival's fitting tribute to his memory. Rademakers "Havelaar" is a magnificent sweeping epic, based on a novel of the same name, telling a tale of Colonial oppression in the Dutch East Indies — today's Indonesia — in the mid 1850s. Max Havelaar was a Dutch colonial administrator with a sense of justice who struggled against a corrupt local Raja and his own corrupt racist fellow officials in favor of the ruthlessly exploited local farmers. Other than Rutger Hauer in a small role, there are no name actors known outside of Holland, although Peter Faber in the title role is superb and firmly believable as Max, and the large cast of Indonesian actors, male and female, young and old, are completely authentic, unlike Hollywood's phony depictions of such "natives". In short"Havelaar" is a classic of world cinema whose nearly three hours of screen time flit by timelessly. If one were to see only one Dutch film this one is it. Not to miss if it ever comes your Way.

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!

I saw this movie about 30 years ago. I remember that I loved it. I spent 2 years in Java and it really captured a lot of the spirit there. The cinematography and colors in the move were fabulous. Indonesia was ruled by the Dutch for 450 years so they are not always that fond of their former colonizers. Anyone interested in a great book ought to read Krakatoa: the Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester. It too, captured the country in the 1800's and explains in great part some of the tensions that still exist there.

If anyone knows where to get a copy of it, please post here. I've been trying off and on for years to get a copy through Ebay and internet searches but to no avail.

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 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!