De vuurlinie

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.

Director Roel Reiné films the life of war hero and veteran Marco Kroon with De Vuurlinie. Still, Reiné didn't want to make a one-on-one biographical film about Kroon, so he added a lot of fiction to the story where the story about Kroon runs like a common thread through the film. So I'm not going to start with things that aren't right or how protagonist Waldemar Torenstra doesn't look like Marco Kroon, because that was the whole set-up behind this film. What the film actually is is an indictment of how we as Dutch treat our heroes. The Dutch would like to point out their mistakes to people and tell people how to live in our society and those who do not want to adapt to them must of course be tackled considerably. Look at what is happening in the current Netherlands, for example in politics. Our political leaders know how to strongly condemn criticism of other countries and want to be the bravest boy in the class, but in the meantime a society is disrupted to such a way that you should not fall out of tone because then you are the dick.

So it is with Marco Kroon, he has come back from his mission in Afghanistan, where he is traumatized by the terrible things he had to do and experienced. Once in the Netherlands, he receives the highest military award for his exploits, a scene that has not been filmed too strongly. For example, Reiné tries to mix the real images with the cinematic images and you can see that enormously in the difference in camera use, plus the fact that the cinematic pieces feel rather made. After that, Marco wants to pick up life again and work in his wife's pub as a bartender, something that is not really appreciated by military gentlemen of a higher hand. Because what kind of signal do you give if you suddenly go behind the tap as a soldier with a Military-Willems Order award in your pocket. It will cost Marco dearly if he is accused of drug and arms trafficking, without the Public Prosecutor having good evidence of it. The Public Prosecutor is portrayed in a strong way by Angela Schijf, a role in which you really start to hate her. Because as everyone knows, the real Marco Kroon was eventually acquitted of the drug trade, but he was for the possession of a few power surge weapons, of which he delivered three through them.

Reiné indicated that this was a bit of a kind of accusation against the current Dutch society and how we dealt with our heroes and of course there is definitely something to be said for that. Reiné indicated in an interview somewhere that their heroes were treated differently in the United States and that the Netherlands could take an example. That may be partly the case, but Reiné may have forgotten for a moment how the Americans handled their returning Vietnam veterans and how they were also vomited there by American society. So that kite doesn't quite go on, but given the current society, he does have a point and the Fire Line really knows how to put its finger on the sore spot. The film is of everything, a family drama, a court drama, but also a war film and the latter are the strongest parts of the film and is translated to the screen in an almost un-Dutch way. The tactical maneuvers, the horrors in the torn Afghanistan, but also the parts that happened there where the dogs really don't like bread, where Marco eventually falls prey to and knows how to fully explain his post-traumatic syndrome.

The Line of Fire is a very strong film about the life of war hero Marco Kroon with a fictional twist on it. This was done to actually make a film in which all soldiers will recognize themselves and to avoid the parts about incorrect facts or a Waldemar Torenstra who does not look like Kroon at all. Torenstra makes a strong performance and Reiné knows how to show the Dutch viewer that we live in a finger-wise culture and like to point out people to their mistakes, and then tell them how to live. It is of course a gross shame that someone like Marco Kroon was just accused of things he didn't do without proof. The war in Afghanistan are the strongest pieces of the film and is shown on the silver screen in an almost un-Dutch way. For the rest, the film is just very good, with the end of the award ceremony, there is actually little to criticize about the film that manages to emotion and shock by showing a peace mission in such a way that the viewer knows that a peace mission for a soldier is not a holiday, but that he ends up in total madness and a cold war.

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.

"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.

It's an inside story on the things the Dutch Special forces did in Afghanistan. And the life of Marco Kroon after his deployment. Included the accusations about drug usage and selling. And the relation with his wife. And what effect the deployment had on his family as a whole. Very well made movie. And good acting. The movie is based on two of the books Marco Kroon wrote. For every ex-military a must see. And also for people who are interested what could happen in Afghanistan or on other military mission around the world. Seen in my local VUE movie theater on the biggest screen available. Go see it!