De vuurlinie

"Kudos to the Dutch film industry! This film, despite its limited budget, stands out with its thrilling action sequences and stunning, true-to-life visuals. The action scenes are pulse-pounding and expertly choreographed, keeping you on the edge of your seat throughout. The use of practical effects and real locations adds a level of authenticity that's often missing in big-budget blockbusters. It's a testament to the skill of the filmmakers that they've created such a visually impressive and action-packed movie without breaking the bank. If you're a fan of action films, this one is a must-see."

It is a well written story which is a combination of stories of Dutch Afghanistan veterans and Dutch distinguished special forces major Marco Kroon in particular. At the beginning of the movie it is stated that the story is based on facts as well as fiction and this makes up for a great and thought-provoking watch.

The acting by the lead actors Waldemar Torenstra (Marco Kroon) and Sallie Harmsen (Mirjam van den Hoven) was good and in my opinion very believable.

Major Kroon has been distinguished with the Netherlands' greatest military award "Militaire Willemsorde" but despite this honor he has been pretty controversial. This movie shows mainly the other side of the story that the media doesn't highlight where he and his family go through difficult times which is very understandable considering the circumstances. I did like it that they didn't portray Kroon as the perfect superhero either, but in the end nobody is perfect.

A couple of military details weren't correct, this is a bit annoying for someone with a military background and with a bit more research wouldn't have been necessary. A couple of examples: saluting inside, incorrectly wearing the baret, counting two stars for the captain rank instead of three, a military psychologist working in a bunker of sorts, incorrect procedures while driving and using their personal weapon, the commander of the armed forces working from a big mansion etc. Small details for the average viewer, but important for military personnel all over the world.

These flaws didn't let the story down. A story most importantly about veterans and their family and the experience they go through. I would recommend it!

"I really don't care what people think of me anymore. Really." These were the words (roughly translated from Dutch) spoken by the real Marco Kroon at the premiere. At the very least an admirable stance, though the film that started its theatrical run right after made it a suspiciously convenient thing to say.

Line of Fire doesn't care much for nuance. Not in the drama, the action, the scenes of war it recreates, but especially in building the character of Marco Kroon. I don't believe stating right at the start that the story being told merges fact and fiction absconds it from presenting Kroon as a nearly unequivocal good guy, dodging a ton of questions that could be raised after a basic Google search by simply leaving out inconvenient facts. It doesn't just make for a dubious moral situation, but also simply makes for a dull lead. Kroon is the most interesting character in this and his depth reflects that of a typical side character (it follows that not a single other person in this entire film has an ounce of personality). This wouldn't be that big of an issue if the film wasn't clearly about him. Not the charges or the war, this is a Kroon story front and centre, and if it's not, some very poor choices were made. It's a tale of two parts which are intercut throughout: the case/trial against Kroon and his time in Afghanistan. None of the war scenes contribute anything to the other side of the story, so you can't help but assume they're there purely to further flesh out Kroon - which they do a terrible job of, but that's beside the point here. What I am concerned with, is how that development is only really achieved in the final ~30 minutes, when a series of events leads to a grueling experience for Kroon. Before that, it's comprised of completely unmotivated action scenes that exist purely for spectacle, so Dutch people can cheer about the fact that they're seeing a picture from our own soil that actually has some decent production value behind it. But all the gunfire and explosions ultimately don't mean or accomplish anything. And it should honestly come as no surprise considering Roel Reiné helmed this project (he has a filmography that is excellently summed up by the posters of his most popular work). Maybe letting the creator of countless B-movie action flicks get his hands on a 'serious' war film was not such a great idea. The tonal whiplash is hilarious: moments of grief, shock and intensity are placed right next to laughable one-liners, POV shots of RPG's and epic synthwave music accompanying the action like you're playing the intro mission of the new Call of Duty - speaking of which, every Arab here is either a faceless soldier to be mercilessly downed with lead or a child rapist. To top it all off, Reiné infuses the whole thing with a sort of half-baked Snyder aesthetic where you get the desaturated colors and overly dramatic lighting (almost every interior scene has overblown light rays beaming through the windows) but none of what makes his work any fun.

The drama side of it doesn't fare any better, in fact, it might be even worse. It's so hilariously undercooked you start to wonder whether the stove was even on. You get superficial characters yelling superficial things at each other and having superficial reactions until two basic courtroom scenes take place and resolve the entire conflict with means that were never established or hinted at. Screwing up a courtroom drama is a sure-fire way to get me pissed and, boy, was I glad the film ended almost right after.

Look, I get it. It's exciting to see a Dutch film with money clearly thrown at it, especially when most of what we get to see is awful romcoms. But that's the point: the bar is so low that clearing it doesn't automatically grant you my approval. I'd like to see this kind of funding and effort go to other projects that try to raise that bar. We desperately need it in our industry.

The movie starts a bit slow but a lot of recognition, to the end the events brought tears to my eyes. Every veteran has a story to tell, even if it is a very sad one, take the time to listen. For a Dutch movie, no Hollywood budget, it was pretty good, actors did a great job too. Although the movie is based on facts, fiction was added for the screen, I still think it is very realistic story. When a soldier comes home after a mission, the mission at home starts and it effects everyone in the family. Remember that next time you meet a veteran that has served his country, they have seen and been through things no one should see or go through.

Mixed feelings about his movie, whether you enjoy it depends on your background as it is filled with historic, cultural and military inaccuracies that should have been spotted during production. For a movie claiming to be inspired by real events surrounding the individual Marco Kroon it is a loss that they were not able to accurately represent the recent historic environment which has been extensively documented.

Dutch movies are generally notoriously poorly produced, but there are worse productions than De Vuurlinie.

I must caveat that I am a veteran of ISAF and served in Tarin Kowt and Chora (at the White Compound), and the Baluchi valley around the period presented in the video. I admit that the movie was not made for me, but the faults in the movie are just too extensive to ignore.

For a movie claiming to be about Afghanistan they made some colossal blunders. The bad guys sport the ISIS flag which is absurd as the movie war bits take place in 2006 and IS did not yet have their flag in prominent use yet and IS had no presence in Afghanistan. IS are also the ideological opposites to the Taliban (different Islamic religious streams and the Taliban are hardliners for self-preservation of Afghanistan whereas IS wants world expansion). This goes to the extremes that these groups have been fighting each other (currently in the Korengal valley between the Taliban and the ISK)

Anyone with a superficial interest in regional culture or history can pick out that the Taliban and IS are very different groups. It is insane that the movie went this far into production with a colossal failure like this going unnoticed.

Now onto the production, please take a seat.

There is a lot of high quality historic special forces footage from Dutch patrols in the Uruzgan region which could have been used as reference. The locations in this movie however are mostly brick housing which the region did not have. Additionally, the White Compound in Chora is visualised as being a hangar (the system ceiling made me chuckle) meaning limited effort went into localization as well as these environments are also well documented.

Weaponry was poorly portrayed. 'Marco' carries an ill fitting SERPA pistol holster that is aimed upward and because it does not fit the Glock the trigger is exposed. This is a great way to shoot your buddy in the face, no Commando would ever walk around like this with gun barrels aiming upward and triggers exposed, it is just plain dumb and would be identified by anyone with any military experience.

It looks like the prop master had limited options for weaponry as well, the main machine gun being fired is an MG3 which is a German machine gun that the Netherlands does not use. This is sad because plenty of UK prop shops have area and period correct props such as the FNM240 (we call it the FN MAG) available for rent that could have resolved this. But this is just another example that any degree of (historic) accuracy was not a consideration.

The uniforms look okayish but are incomplete, lacking important details like badges, tactical gear. You also never see a backpack so I guess they are living out of their pockets. It looks like they just gathered what they had. It seems the costume department had a big bag of airsoft accessories as a lot of the portrayed weapons are obviously airsoft replicas and the Taliban can be seen running around in airsoft tactical vests without any attachments to them (did anyone in the production crew ever take a look at a picture of the Taliban?)

The tactics are a laugh as well, walking around with the Night vision monocular looking into street lights. No overwatch positions being taken but just sneaking in on foot into a not previously reconned village. It makes the tactics and fighting look more like a poor episode of the A team than a real war movie. This is sad because the reason Marco was decorated was because of his methodical approach in planning his operations and not having lost a single operator under his command. The movie does not portray this at all, the briefings are laughably short with zero regard to eventualities.

The music is a blatant ripoff from recognizable bits from Hans Zimmer with the ending song being an poor copy of the BlackHawkDown theme song, including the singing. This is hilariously bad, they should have just bought the rights to Zimmer's work instead of this insane copying (which is likely legally questionable as well). Zero points here as well.

Is it really this bad? As I said I don't think I am the intended audience and from a military, cultural and historic perspective it is apparent that very little effort went into making this about TaskForce Viper/66 or Afghanistan. I doubt they had any experts on hand, and neither did they care about experts leading to so many mistakes in every scene portraying Afghanistan. It is obvious they simply did not care to portray Afghanistan, the Taliban or TaskForce Viper in a realistic way.

For the overall story line, this is amusing and better than most Dutch movies (which are generally of a very poor quality and I'd rarely give something a 6 out of 10). I think it will appease to most Dutch viewers as long as they didn't have high expectations or previous knowledge about the ISAF mission of Afghanistan. If you instead want to learn about what it was like in ISAF/OEF there are way better movies out there.

Another saving grace is Pierre Bokma's performance as General van Uhm, this was spot on regarding acting and personality, he had limited scenes but they were the strongest acting in the movie.

If they had spent a little bit more effort in portraying the reason why Marco Kroon was decorated, and using archive footage of Afghanistan as reference this could have many much, much better.