A great film

Rating: 10/10 (30 April 2007)

After a great career of almost 25 years making low budget films with a lot of fascinating ideas(like Spetters or Soldier of Orange)in his natal Netherlands,director Paul Verhoeven moved to USA in 1987.I consider his career in USA also excellent (with the exception of Hollow Man).He made fascinating films with an extraordinary energy and with excellent scripts.The films were very economically successful but the people in general could not understand the satire Verhoeven put to that films.The films I'm talking about are Robocop,Basic Instinct and Starship Troopers.But,after the economic and critic failures of the criminally underrated Showgirls(I still defend this film)and the mediocre Hollow Man,Verhoeven backed to Netherlands maybe,to escape the pressure Hollywood gave him and to go back to his land.And,Black Book is the spectacular result of that decision.Black Book is a magnificent film.This film is a perfect combination between the traditional war films of the 50s with the sensibility of the modern epic films.This film took the classic formulas and it gave them new life.Obviously,Verhoeven did not want to do a typical war film where the Nazis are the villains who are defeated by the hero.His intention was to show the analysis of a real situation in which,sometimes,the villains show more humanity than the hero.Black Book is a lot more than a very fun adventure during the World War 2.The difficult decisions and the questionable ethic of the characters make of Black Book a complex and fascinating film.Black Book is a great film:it's enormously fun,it has excellent ideas,it does not have the solemnity this kind of movies have,it's complex,fascinating and,the best thing of all,it leaves the spectator thinking.All movies should be like this one.