La bataille de l'Escaut

September 1944. The Allies have captured the port of Antwerp but the Germans still control the Scheldt estuary, preventing supplies reaching Antwerp and the Allied forces. Walcheren Island is key to the German's defence. Operation Market Garden is launched, hoping to penetrate directly into Germany via Arnhem in Holland. A glider from this operation is forced to crash land on Walcheren, leaving a handful of British troops trapped behind enemy lines. Meanwhile a Dutch teenager accidentally kills three Germans, causing a tragic chain of events. On the German staff is a Dutch soldier who now starts to question where his loyalties lie.

An interesting war drama. Covers a lesser-known campaign of WW2, the battles for the Scheldt Estuary (and the Battle of Walcheren in particular) and does so in reasonably entertaining and engaging fashion. A decent enough plot, covering the battle from many sides, with some good action scenes and CGI.

Not brilliant though. The plot is a bit clumsy at times and some aspects seem dumbed-down. The focus of the film is also at a micro level so you don't much information on the bigger picture and the effort involved in the opening up of the Scheldt estuary. While the civilian aspect was interesting much of the time taken on it could have been better spent.

De slag om de Schelde (2020) is a Dutch movie co-written and directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. It was shown in the U. S. with the title "The Forgotten Battle." The actual title translates as "The Battle of the Scheldt." We in the U. S. may never have heard of it. That's because Canadian troops bore the brunt of the battle against the Germans. I'm sure it's not a forgotten battle in Canada or Holland.

Gijs Blom portrays Marinus van Staveren, a Dutch citizen who is fighting on the side of the Germans. He hates Jews--and probably Communists--so he volunteered to fight in the German army. When the movie opens, he's fighting on the Russian front, but he gets transferred to Holland.

Jamie Flatters plays William Sinclair. He's a British glider pilot, but his glider is shot down and he lands in Holland.

Susan Radder plays Teuntje Visser, a Dutch woman who works in the mayor's office. Jan Bijvoet portrays her father--Doctor Visser--who treats Germans and Dutch equally well.

The complexity of the movie is the interaction among these people, as the Canadian forces try to overcome the German forces in the area called The Scheldt. (I checked, and it really was important for the allies to possess the region, and equally important for the Germans to prevent this.)

Of course, in a war movie, there's going to be blood and carnage. However, what keeps this film from being just another WWII movie is the complicated plot, that goes in directions you may not expect.

De slag om de Schelde has a pretty weak IMDb rating of 7.1. I thought it was better than that, and rated it 8.

Based on true events in Belgium/Netherlands of Allies recapturing the Port Of Antwerp, and the battle to expel the Germans forces still holding onto the critical North Sea seaport channel (the Scheldt) near the end of WWII in Europe.

The film takes it to the ground and personal level, focused on three young protagonists, a British glider pilot, a Dutch-born German solder, and a Dutch civilian girl.

The film is excellent in every regard, winning multiple Dutch film festival awards including Best Film of 2020.

An intimate portrayal of characters based on true events, this film holds back nothing in telling its story.

I'll leave the synopsis at that so as not to give away too much detail, but worth the view for certain.

Photography, direction, sound editing, casting, acting, battle scenes, and even the thankfully subtle soundtrack fill are all spot on excellent.

*Approximately two-thirds of the dialogue is in English, appropriately interspersed with German and Dutch and clear subtitles, making it an easy watch even for those who avoid subtitle films.

One of the best foreign (Dutch) WWII films you will find, and I highly recommend seeing it.

One of the most expensive Dutch films ever produced and streaming kingpin Netflix's first originally produced film from the Netherlands, The Forgotten Battle is the perfect type of film for the company to support as well as being one of the most well put together war films in their catalogue.

Directed by native Dutchman Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. (whose dabbled in Hollywood efforts like the The Thing), Battle tells the story of the not overly well-known World War 2 battle of Schelde in which allied forces took it to a bare-bones but determined Nazi army that was hellbent on stopping the allied march across Europe capturing ports and cities on their way into the Nazi occupied heartlands.

Splitting the film up into three separate stories that all combine into one cohesive narrative structure, Battle follows Gijs Blom's young Dutch German soldier Marinus who has been sent back to his home country to take part in the fight, Jamie Flatter's newbie British pilot William who has along with his squad been shot down over enemy lines and battling to get back to allied forces and Susan Radder's Walcheren Island native Teuntje who is trying her best to rescue her brother from the clutches of Nazi soldiers.

Offering a wide ranging scope by telling his story this way, Heijningen Jr's film isn't your typical war film that is all battles and brothers and while it has plenty of in your face battlefront carnage and cat and mouse games of life and death, the film provides a neatly observed different lens on the World War 2 front with it far removed from the more Hollywoodized war films that can find themselves front and centre in the genre on regular occasions.

Working with a budget that while significant is still merely catering for big time productions, Heijningen Jr wrings every last dollar out of his films coffers to ensure that Battle feels like a more prestigious than usual Netflix mid-tier release and while it may not offer the big emotional pay-offs or gravitas to make it a must-watch, Battle showcases to viewers and to Netflix as a company the exact type of films it should be investing in when its not throwing 100's of millions of dollars at releases like The Irishman, 6 Underground and the upcoming Red Notice.

Far from a classic World War 2 tale, battle is still high quality war time drama that offers a firsthand look at a largely unspoken about component of the Market Garden operation.

Final Say -

The Forgotten Battle is an above average Netflix release that has rightfully proved to be a decent sized hit for the streaming company and should be sought after by anyone seeking out a quality World War 2 offering (or a chance to see Draco Malfoy battle Nazis).

3 1/2 biscuit tins out of 5.

Having seen a number of Dutch Second World War films, If have to say, I was positively surprised as to how close this film aimed to come to actual situations on the ground. Most of the island of Walcheren had been flooded by the Germans and by Allied bombing of the dikes. One of my uncles survived the battle for Vlissingen in a flooded cellar, floating with a tobacco barrel under each arm. Ironically, he died of lung cancer fifty years later.

As war films go this one is actually pretty good.