Admiral (2015)

I watched this film while on a KLM flight from Nairobi to Amsterdam, so while the audio feed was appalling, I found the film to be a brilliant and powerful story. The film tells of the achievements of Admiral Michiel de Ruyter and was well made in various locations in the Netherlands; its CGI content is much to be admired. As someone with an interest in British naval history, the portrayal of the Battle of the Medway was excellent as well as pertinent. In spite of a few howlers, the film is recommended; production was amazing.

Dutch cinema is ofcourse not widely known as one of the world's greatest contributions to world cinema, but in Admiral we have a film that is not lacking in its ambition, and while it does a lot of things right, it doesn't really manage to capture the bottom line of making the audience care about it. I like slow movies. The reason i prefer slow movies over fast ones is because films are a cinematic experience which need to sink into and be absorbed by the audience which will only succeed if certain sequences are drawn out instead of rushed through. Unfortunately, this is exactly what did happen with Admiral, as it seems to choke on its own haste. I personally do not know much about the history of Mr. de Ruyter, but i understand the film is supposedly very historically accurate. However, in its ambition to create historical accuracy the film seems to suffer from trying to put too many important historical battles in its 2 hour 31 running time, which results in extreme gaps in timelines after which the audience gets the idea that we missed huge chunks of the story. What is essentially the story of Admiral is him setting out to sea, fighting some battles against the English or French, coming home for some dramatic political or family scenes, and setting out again. It is also a picture that seems obsessed with creating an incredible amount of drama in nearly every scene, with its grandiose music by Trevor Morris ( While the music is great, its epic parts are used far too much ) & stylish slow motion techniques. While this might seem great there really isn't much drama in the end because the movie's pace is too fast for the characters to be fleshed out.Admittedly the costume design, music & in certain scenes the cinematography is all very pleasing, but a lot of the greatest visual shots in the film are cut short because the movie always seems to be in a hurry for some reason. It seems to think it is in a race while wanting to get to the finish line as quickly as possible. If you create impressive visuals, director Roel Reine should atleast let the audience appreciate it instead of cutting it short so quickly. Most of the shots on the ships are basically slow motion shots of pieces of wood and splinters flying through the air, which is all ofcourse stylishly filmed, but in the end has little substance. Reine also simply moves the camera way too much all the time. Even the simplest scenes feature overly dynamic camera movements for no apparent reason other than to keep the modern low attentionspan audience interested. It also for some reason features a lot under hip height shots ( Especially on the ships ), so except for some of the wideshots of the naval battles we really don't see much of what is happening most of the time.Frank Lammers is a pretty bad actor, and his performance as M. de Ruyter is just laughable at best. It also quite possibly has the worst casting ever of the country's greatest actor Rutger Hauer, and the guy who played William the third was pretty mediocre in his own right. The only truly impressive performance was from Sanne Langelaar, who played Michiel's wife, as she seems to be the only person that seems to truly be emotionally connected to the events of the film. A lot of people die, including some of its protagonists, which ofcourse results in overly dramatic slow motion and orchestral music in order to invoke emotions in the audience. However, this doesn't work as well as it should because the film doesn't really make you care about its characters and its world, since all it seems obsessed with is haste. Without substance these dramatic scenes become melodramatic scenes which in turn makes the film somewhat pretentious. It's great ambition cannot be denied, but in the end it is quite devoid of relatability.While it is a valiant effort of creating a dramatic view of de Ruyter's life and at times it is visually great, it does not succeed in making the audience care that much because it seems to be obsessed with its own haste.

It's not the three musketeers and I'm not even sure what this is based on. Though I reckon a bit of research here, will bring up a lot of that stuff, so I won't have to bore you with that. I was a bit surprised to see this coming from Holland. On the other hand, they are a bit more free when it comes to nudity (just in case you are prude or have a general issue with that, a heads up).The general swords play and the effects are pretty good. Unfortunately the German disc only had the dubbed version on it, so I couldn't enjoy the real actors voice and environment noise of the production. But it's still made an impression on me and the movie is really rock solid (for some maybe even more than that). The set design, the ships, everything screams a bigger budget than they actually had. Not to mention some very serious acting talent at hand ...

As for the technical side, this film is spectacular. The editing, the story, the production value as a whole is worth the time. This is one of the "epic" films that did not get it's due. So well done and a fantastic soundtrack - this is where the we lose Academy worthy people in the mix. This production was phenomenal.As for the story, I found it a very worthy tale to tell (and surprised nobody attempted it at this level before). Due to the scope of de Ruyter's impact on this time period, the movie did move a bit quickly and (as expected) did not have time to encompass the importance and the intricate detail of the lives involved. So my only ding here is that it felt rushed in the aspects of the personal lives of Michiel and Anna. To give their emotional and political struggles justice, perhaps a mini-series would have been a more appropriate venue. You feel unsatisfied with the depth of their development. You are simply left wanting more from them.While based on historical "fact", there are many aspects that needed further development. I wanted so much more background and detail on the characters and the political struggle that, again, a sense of rush was left and it left me sad about that.When such an incredible production crew and and an insanely under- respected director (Roel Reiné) is given this type of budget and consulting, I feel like they were all let down by not being able to explore this topic and these characters further.Overall, this film was absolutely spectacular! The brutal moments (for those who know) were almost too brutal to fit into the context of the rest of the story's examination. But HOLY MONKEY this film was a great breath of fresh air and and a great view inside the filmmaking from this part of the world.A+ and huge kudos to all involved. You needed a better platform, but you made incredible value bleed from these limitations. An emotional and thoughtful ride on a side of history that needs more exploration. Cheers to you all!If you are a history buff, you'll get a lot out of this. If you are a film buff, you'll get even more. And if you're looking for some of the most under-appreciated talent in both screen and bts, then you've stumbled on a treasure-trove that all filmmakers should seek out.Disturbingly well done.