The Forgotten Battle

The Forgotten Battle may not be the most memorable war movie ever made, but it is a solid Dutch war drama worth checking out. The aim of this film is to tell the true story of the lessor known Battle of the Scheldt. Visually, this movie is quite impressive. The cinematography beautifully displays an interesting landscape for us. The battle sequences are especially impressive and realistic. They are violent, graphic and expertly shot. It is very much like Saving Private Ryan in that aspect. But there is a lot more going on in this movie than just battle action.

Early on, we're introduced to 3 different characters who's stories we follow. Eventually, they all cross paths, but perhaps not as satisfyingly as one might have hoped. The acting is stellar, although the weakness of this movie is that all the characters feel like supporting acts as the central focus of the movie is the mission of liberating Zeeland in the Netherlands. But it truly is an interesting historical event and story to witness in this format. This battle, as well as this movie, should not be overlooked.

I enjoyed this movie very much, although enjoying isn't the right term. It shows the senselessness of war for most of those involved. Praise to the young actors, who did an exceptional job considering the script didn't give their roles a lot of depth. I particularly liked Gijs Blom who plays the part of a Dutch boy in the German service. The German commander was too stereotypically evil for my taste, but other than that this film is certainly in my top three of Dutch war movies. Go see it on the big screen, support your local cinema!

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.

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.

The Forgotten Battle is a World War II film directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. And written by Paula van der Oest. The film follows a British glider pilot, a Dutch boy fighting on the German side and a Dutch female resistance member who all end up involved in the Battle of the Scheldt that was fought in 1944. Their choices differ, but their goal is the same: freedom. We get to see the battle through these three perspectives, this storytelling is similar to what Christopher Nolan did with Dunkirk. But the similarities kind of ends there, the screenplay is flawed but it's mostly quite great. Where the film succeeds is the cinematography and direction, it's visually a very pleasing movie. It shows how it's become one of the most expensive Dutch films. I thought the film would focus mainly on the battle but I was wrong, it's about the people that the battle and war is affecting, a more human story which I'm totally behind. So it's more character driven than action heavy, but it's of course a war movie and that's shown brilliantly with imagery you'll continue to remember. But with it being focused on three perspectives, the pacing gets worse and it makes the film feel dragged out, story especially as events take too long of a time to build up. Maybe a shorter run time would have helped the film or a different screenplay that focused on mainly two perspectives, the Allies and Axis. But I'll admit that the story arc regarding Teuntje Visser is worthy to be told as it goes hand in hand with Marinus van Staveren's own character arc which is probably the film's best.

The acting in this film was terrific and full of emotion and authenticity. The cast has Gijs Blom as Marinus van Staveren, Jamie Flatters as William Sinclair, Susan Radder as Teuntje Visser and Tom Felton as Tony Turner. Felton being the only actor I recognized who was great in this, but the unknown cast is because how it's a Dutch production which makes The Forgotten Battle even more authentic. I can only give praise to the cast's performances, from the leads to supporting cast to guest stars. Everyone did a terrific job.

Though I did say the script was kind of flawed, there's no lie that Paula van der Oest can write characters and dialogue well. It's where the script is positive, the ability to humanize the German soldiers which often become black and white. With help of the director and actors, the characters are superbly done. The sound design and musical score is brilliant. An average Dutch feature film at the time contained about 500-600 separate audio tracks, while this film has well over 1700. It says something about the production, and some sounds were even arranged by Charles Maynes who did the sound for Clint Eastwood's WW2 film, Letters from Iwo Jima. It's truly award worthy work. Something else that was great is of course the makeup and costume department. The sets, production and art design. Honestly the whole production is impressive. What made me truly love the film was the final 30 minutes or so when all the build up comes together and the big battle is shown, it's everything a battle on this grand scale should be. Chaotic, immersive, engaging and simply just real. It was filmed and edited similarly to the D-Day sequence in Saving Private Ryan which made us feel that we were in the character's shoes in the battle and I felt the same way in this sequence, honestly the entire movie.

The Forgotten Battle isn't meant to romanize war, it shows the horrors of war on all three sides. The Allies, Axis and civilians. It does it perfectly. If it would have shown more of the battle, locations and such, and had a better script and pacing, I would have found the film to be brilliant. With the beautiful cinematography and everything on the technical side being top notch, I can only say that it's great. Solid 9/10 but not a masterpiece.