• Director: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.
• With: Gijs Blom, Jamie Flatters, Susan Radder, Jan Bijvoet, Tom Felton, Coen Bril, Scott Reid, Marthe Schneider, Theo Barklem-Biggs, Justus von Dohnányi, Joep Paddenburg, Ronald Kalter
• Music by: Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch
• Duration: 2h7
• Platform: Netflix (The Forgotten Battle)
• Rating: 6,5/10

Synopsis:

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.

Review:

A movie about a battle that isn’t mentioned often in any history book… that had to be very interesting. So I was excited to watch this movie, especially because the director was the same one who made the prequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing in 2011. (And did a great job with the prequel) But I was a bit disappointed with this movie… let me explain!

First of all, the movie isn’t bad so it’s not that I didn’t like it at all… there were great scenes in there and there’s an emotional impact, which is quite normal because well… the second world war… enough said, I guess! Unnecessary killing and young men serving as cannon fodder… even at the end of the war, a lot of people died…

But the title is ‘The Forgotten Battle’ (emphasis on battle!) but there’s not much of a battle in this movie, apart from maybe the last 15 minutes. Okay, sounds a bit morbid maybe? But don’t name your movie ‘forgotten battle’ if it isn’t about that…

A lot of the actors are quite mediocre… I did like the story about Teun and her brother, who’s in the resistance… and the part with Van Saveren (a Dutch soldier fighting for the German side but who has a conflict of conscience)

The British actors… mèh… I didn’t feel it. Their heart wasn’t really in the story…

I know the movie was filmed in Lithuania because the side where the ‘battle’ actually happened in 1944 was not really available anymore (a lot of windmills have been put in the water where it occurred) so they had to move production to another country. But you could still believe it was Holland so that’s ok.

I’m sure some people won’t agree with me and I have to admit, for a Dutch production this was not a bad movie… It just wasn’t what I expected… And casting may have been a bit better… although it was fun to see Tom Felton in a different role as Draco Malfoy for once…