06/05

A shocking assassination of a controversial public figure, muddy, insufficient explanation, hence a logical ground for a conspiracy theories. If you add that the director of the movie gets murdered himself, soon after finishing this film,it all gets even more convoluted. Pim Fortuyn was labeled with the extremist labels, racism, intolerance, but he was much more complex person. An open homosexual, asking hard but not unfair questions. Without any answers or useful suggestions, he was smeared and easily dismissed. And shortly after killed. The movie is powerful, but little disjointed , as if the director wasn't sure himself of his intentions.

Well, I actually really liked it. Next to the tension this movie builds on, it has a very warm, very dutch, comforting seventies-based and natural feel to it. Despite of the actual storyline and the grim ideas behind it, I could understand where Theo was coming from when he wanted this to be made. Having lived the day when Pim Fortuyn got killed, and knowing the many unexplained details surrounding it, I think parts of the movie are terrifying in that they might very well be more true than most of us would like to believe. Just waving away the entire story as fiction somehow doesn't cut it for me. Knowing Theo Van Gogh quite well from local TV etcetera, I expected some hidden messages, telling us things beneath the surface of it all; They're not getting through to every viewer, but they're all over the place.

Theo shot this movie using the very fast 3-camera technique, giving it a documentary-like speed, which fits the writing. Some of the action scenes could have been done better (with a bigger budget perhaps), but aside from a few lesser moments (which didn't really bother me) the movie had me hooked, and the only thing I didn't like was that it ended. You know good guys can't always win, but you really want them to this time around. Even today, you'd like Pim and Theo to just re-appear on-screen like nothing had happened in our 'innocent' little country. It's hard to view the film not knowing the sickening story behind his killing, and it's even harder to notice how wrongfully he and Pim have been accused of being racist and right-wing extremists (or similar accusations). If anything, this movie is telling it like it is, and shows us how the exact opposite was true for both Pim and Theo.

The movie would have looked quite promising for Van Gogh, and still does for most of the actors in it. Theo was clearly getting better by the year, so it truly saddens me to see what could have been if he would still be alive. It's all been so silly, so stupid, so useless, and when you see this movie you want to snap out of reality, but you know you can't, because it is all so real...

As a political statement, this is a failed attempt, I have to agree with others here. The ridiculous ending points towards lack of self respect and respect for the viewer. Maybe it was done out of trying not to take oneself too seriously, if this was so, then that's failed too. It fails to make clear that killing Fortuyn was in response to what left-wing politicians said, and that it was necessary for Volkert van der G. to do so.

The only support for the conspiracy theory which is sort of makes sense is the fact that VvdG was arrested so quickly. However, we have to remember that in conspiracy theories, you don't have to prove anything, the lack of proof is proof itself. Still, you might cling to that old who-dun-it meme: "Follow da money!" Who benefited from his death? The left? Not really, (or rather, really not) they were vilified at the elections, lost 50 percent of their seats in Parliament and they didn't recover until recently. The loony Right? Maybe, because they had a martyr, and they milked that cow until it had Mad Cow disease, too. The arms/JSF lobby? Hmmm, yes and no. The JSF has been the govts choice, but it's controversial, since Dutch defense industry didn't get any deals out of it, so the left can make the truthful case that we're being sucked dry by the Americans. The centre party, the Christian Democrats? They DID profit, electorally, they were seen as a sensible alternative to the opportunistic Fortuyn-party. But perhaps the ones who profited most were the 'sensible' right, the conservatives. Everyone agrees that it is the Iron Heel of THEIR political agenda which now rules the Netherlands ...

Technically, the film was good, some of the camera work was even very good. Sparse, not too much. The lead actor wasn't bad, but he mumbled too much for him to get Best Actor prize. Totally ridiculous was the casting of the daughter! Especially in the scenes with the father, sometimes HE looked younger, despite his beard,

I found it totally unbelievable that she was 15! She's pretty, she's a good actress, but looked too old. Most ridiculous, the scene in the pool/waterparadise. Embarrassing.

I think the movie insufficiently shows how the immigration debate was muddled by intolerance, obscurantism, intimidation and character assassination, and how it eventually led to physical assassination. Some user comments give you a flavour, though. Pravda-5 seems to be consumed by the most intense racial animosity, directed against the Dutch, who stand accused of "in-bread racism" (the word is inbred, by the way). This is exactly the Soviet-like unmeasured demagoguery that had Fortuyn killed. Would I be allowed to make a generalization of my own? Would it be off-limits to present some statistically significant data about crime committed by immigrants, which makes the Dutch a bit wary and suspicious? Now that would be racism, wouldn't it? Or the fact that a significant minority is involved in gang and violent criminal activity and that large portion of these people feel alienated from the dominant culture and have made it explicitly clear that they will do as they please, regardless of what the laws say. Another fact is that we are one the most racially diverse of the leading industrialized nations, with the biggest percentage of non-Western immigrants. That we have done many things for the eternally "disaffected" Muslims: We have build them mosques with imposing minarets all over Rotterdam, Amsterdam and the rest of the country, we have authorized state grants to Islamic schools etc. etc. Many Muslims however relate to their host countries in ways that are diametrically opposed to the multicultural indulgence that they have received. Did I mention that Van Gogh is dead, like Fortuyn? And that two prominent politicians are into hiding for the rest of their lives? That sort of proves their point, doesn't it? I also can't say that I'm much impressed by the idiot schoolmarmish cant about racism and xenophobia from SnoopDogDog from Albania. To call opinions you don't like racist is such a debasement, the question is: are they t-r-u-e?". A phobia is an irrational fear of something or someone. It is not irrational to fear those who follow issued fatwa's. Fortuyn was a public-spirited person doing his citizenly best to promote his idea that freedom of speech is more important than the supposed feelings of Muslims. Fortuyn's opinions were politically incorrect, the opinions of the left were simply incorrect, comparing him to Hitler in a very volatile period of World War II commemorations, which was an offence to objective truth and reason. However, Fortuyn never thought that any speech should be legally banned. By the way, we take the p*ss out of everyone, we're Dutch! Catholics, protestants, homosexuals, foreigners and since recently Muslims. No suffering stronger than hurt feelings is involved.

Nice dutch movie about conspiracy theory's considering the murder of Pim Fortuin. I think it's a good document for dutch viewers to re-live the events pre- and post six may 2001. The plot is pretty good, as we could expect from Ross but the acting is a little rough sometimes. Every time I see someone handling a gun in a dutch movie it seems strange to me. Only LEK succeeded in making that work (for me). It's definitely a movie a for many people in The Netherlands to see, especially because it's the last movie Theo van Gogh made before he was killed by a crazy SOAB. It's funny to see the voting on this movie. 38 When i'm writing this and about half votes it a 10 and the other half votes for a 1. That's an example of how this is still a subject in the dutch society and this might be compared to a dutch JFK. It's a pity van Gogh couldn't get actors that are the same quality as JFK or even find one that speaks proper English!