Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Spetters


Spetters is without doubt Paul Verhoeven’s most offensive film that he made in his homeland. The liberal Dutch even thought it was revolting. This was a thoroughly bold move on Verhoeven’s part seeing as all his earlier films also have some type of controversy attached to them. Spetters also happens to be a rebellious masterpiece of European film making. It is rare to find movies of such unwholesome content that is of such high quality.

I have no interest in dirt bikes, motorcycles, motocross, or other crotch rocket related activities, yet I love racing themed Spetters. The film follows three young men that have dreams of making a career in motocross. They hate their hometowns and repetitive jobs, so motocross becomes the ideal profession for these young lads. Their ambition of changing careers also parallels their search for a new woman. Not only are these young men competing in motocross races, but also for the love of a blond femme fatale who has a food stand with her towering homosexual brother.


Spetters features an array of awkward nudity and sex scenes. One scene involves three young men comparing penis sizes. The guy with the biggest penis has the luxury of first attempting to put their manhood in the blond love interest. Another scene involves the faking of an orgasm by two of the young men and their girlfriends so that they can get out of sex. The young Calvinist mechanic also happens to spy on homosexual prostitutes and their Johns so that he can blackmail them for money later. Later this young man has something undesirable penetrate him which he later realizes he liked.

Screwed up sex isn’t the only thing featured in
Spetters. Serious drama is found throughout the film. The youthful friends in Spetters realize as the days past that their ideal fantasies usually don’t turnout the way that they would like. Fights, paralysis, rape, family problems, and failure are just a few of things that plague these callow friends. Dreams come at a substantial price and fellows in Spetters just don’t seem to have enough to pay it.


Spetters
is also a film about the “new” postwar Holland. The new Holland is a place of liberal and “everything goes” attitude. Before World War II, Holland was considered a proud moral country. After World War II, Holland became a socialized region where strict moral nationalist views became a taboo of sorts (like most of Europe). Spetters takes these liberal attitudes to extremes with “free love,” miscegenation, gay gangbangs, and blasphemy against the Dutch reform church. I guess you could also say the same about the United States and Hollywood films. Of course, Hollywood started its blatant degeneracy in the late 1960s.

Director Paul Verhoeven would later go on to direct the controversial Showgirls in Hollywood. The main difference between Showgirls and Spetters (other than the entire story) is that the latter is a serious film. So serious that one of the actors who commits suicide in Spetters would also go on to kill himself in real life. This is a film for anyone that likes to be both entertained and would like to see a quality film.


-Ty E

1 comment:

  1. jervaise brooke hamsterJanuary 25, 2011 at 4:36 PM

    Robocop has always been a special and magical film, and i`m not just refering to the whole "Heather was still alive in the summer of `87 when it was released" thing (although that will always be a major factor in terms of my liking the film obviously because of how great my obsession with Heather is), or even the fact that Nancy Allen appeared in Poltergeist III with Heather (what incredible memories she must have of being on the set with Heather in that same fateful summer of `87). I`m talking about Robocop being a truly legendary and astonishing masterwork all on its own, even now when i watch it (after literally dozens of veiwings) there seems to be an indescribable flair and exuberance to the film making that has rarely been equalled before or since, i wonder if Heather saw Robocop when it was released?, if she did it would surely have been one of the most incredible experiences of her tragically short young life.

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