The Hell of '63 (2009)

The Eleven Cities ice skating race of 200 kilometers, edition 1963, has an infamous name in The Netherlands. So it should give enough inspiration for an exciting movie. I found the last minutes of this movie the most impressive: to see the real people, around whom the movie is centered. And the simple statement: "Of the 10,000 amateur skaters who took part in this race, only 69 managed to finish".In its execution, however, this movie has some big problems. Some of these have already been mentioned in the other reviews. My biggest objection was this: in the movie two languages are spoken: Dutch and Frisian. One of the main characters - Sjoerd, played by Lourens van den Akker - is not a native Frisian speaker and you can hear it. It's really terrible for people who can speak or understand Frisian. It's distracting, to say the least. This spoiled a lot for me. All other Frisian speaking actors are native speakers: that's how it should be!Question: how can Willeke van Ammelrooy play the mother of Chantal Janzen? What genius came up with that? On the other hand: I think Chris Zegers was cast properly, even though his hair was too long for 1963.What is also good about the movie are the cameos. Look at the full cast at IMDb and spot the famous people: professional ice skaters, an ice skating coach, the winner of the Elfstedentocht of 1997.Some scenes have been shot in Friesland, or look like they have been shot there, and some obviously have not been. Friesland does not have hills. Along the route are no woods. The weather was depicted as horrible, it's what we expect: legend has it, it was truly dreadful. The movie has some funny details as well, such as the smoking nurse in the hospital.I have given this movie a 6/10: the fact that it's there is good. The cameos are good. The weather is good. Most Frisian actors speak well. All other things are not good. Some director: please do this one more time! But better please!

Yesterday I had the dubious pleasure of watching this movie. The movie portrays the adventures of four individuals during the 1963 Elfstedentocht, by far the most important skating event in the world.Without going into detail on the (rather lame) storyline, I have to say that I was deeply saddened by the whole product. While the movie has some good points (mainly the outdoor scenes, which were filmed in Lapland and sometimes gave some idea of the grueling circumstances in which the 1963 edition took place), the storyline was completely unbelievable, the acting was a farce and most of all, the complete and utter negligence of the makers regarding the use of the correct period materials and conversation was a shambles. Another review mentioned the yellow license plates, which were introduced in the early eighties, but also the cars are wrong, the telephones are wrong and the long hair of Chris Zegers is completely idiotic for that time (even the Beatles and the Rolling Stones wore suites at the time). I could go on forever but I will not because this movie does not deserve that many attention. It is just plain ridiculous. I remember the 1963 race (I was five at the time and watched parts of it on my grandfathers television set) and when I read the two positive reviews already published I felt the need to balance this plainly wrong opinions. This movie is a missed opportunity and does NOT do any justice to the epic 1963 Elfstedentocht. It might be enough to please the 5 to 9 year old but certainly anyone with some recollection of the period will be shocked.

I went to this movie not expecting too much and having read a review that only gave it two of five stars. Thus I was pleasantly surprised to see what a good movie Steven de Jong made of the events took place on this day in 1963 when 10.000 people started an ice-skating tour that only 69 of the tourskaters would bring to an end. The story brings four people together that have different reasons for taking part in the tour. The stories are nicely brought together. We also get a good feel of how harsh this tour was. The cinematography is on a high level and the music is great. Also good to see that a main part is spoken in Frisian as this event takes place in Friesland. I would recommend this to anyone who like to see a realistic fight for survival on the ice that brings people together in such a way that only the 11-cities tour can.

Even though I am Dutch, I am not a fan of Dutch Cinema. Therefore this movie surprised me even more than I had hoped for. I enjoyed every minute of this icy ride about the worlds longest ice-skating tour. Director Steven de Jong has provided new hope for Dutch cinema by doing an excellent job. The 'elfstedentocht'(tour of eleven cities) van '63 was a unique and timeless event that deserved a great film like this and I am happy to have experienced this. This whole movie is just excellent and two points deserve special attention regarding the history of Dutch Movies. One thing that has often irritated me in these movies is the unnatural acting. Actors are often acting too much instead of just being relaxed and natural in their role. The actors in this movie are not superior, but they are very natural. And that just makes them and the movie as a whole much more convincing. The second great thing is the camera-work. To give some grandeur to this movie the camera often swings into great heights, crawls under the ice and/or fades from a film-image to a map and vice-versa. The accompanying music creates effects not seen before in Dutch cinema. It really lifts this movie to another level and creates refreshing perspectives. Steven de Jong even portrayed the harsh element of wind in the form of luring icy animals. Something completely unexpected and until now unseen in Dutch movies.Altogether this is a great and unexpected arrival that gets a rating of nine. And I am looking forward to new releases that can match this one.