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For A Lost Soldier

For A Lost Soldier

List Price: $29.99
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: pagan poetry
Review: The darkest secreats revealed...things you could only imagine are contained in this film, the wildness of me after I saw this film-i was thrown into an emotional frenzy. I would like to congratulate the culprates who created this POWERFUL 'piece of art' ...because:
-the mystery of love, is greater than the mystery of death...
-Jackie Leven
portrayed by the director's quote: love can exist between people of any sex and any age.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An Adult Seduces a 12 Year Old Child - Isn't That Beautiful?
Review: Except for the heavy-handed present day bookends, and some structural problems (i.e. showing scenes in a flashback that the person having the flashback didn't experience themselves!), this film is so beautiful and lyrical and well acted that one is lulled into forgetting that it is about a grown man seducing and having a sexual affair with a 12 year old.

I woke up to this only hours after watching the film. It hit me like a lightening bolt that someone had just seduced me into finding this relationship beautiful and romantic. As someone who was a sexually abused child, let me tell you what kind of scares that leaves behind, especially when the kid is dumped unceremoniously as the boy was in this film (and as I was). It takes years (if ever) to understand the events and master them to the point of being able to lead a somewhat normal life. And anyone who thinks it's glamourous or romantic only knows the experience as a fantasy and not first-hand.

One reviewer said that this film cries out for a sequel...I agree: I'd love to see how this 12 year old kid dealt with the lost of his virginity at such a young age and then - after being told that he was loved - have to deal with the fact that the guy took off without a word, and without ever having contact with him again. I don't find that romantic, I find it a cruel liberty that an adult took with a child, throwing that child into waters that it not only could NEVER navigate at that age, but then cold-heartily leaving it to drown.

I have given the film four points despite this. The actors are magnificent, and the director truly creates an atmosphere that one can lose themselves in. I did - to the point of forgetting common decency!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: What a Great Story!
Review: I am always looking for movies that capture my heart in such a way that it effects me years after I've viewed it. This movie did just that.

For a lost soldier really brought out the love relationship between two people who can't even speak the same language. It showed how two humans can fall in love with each other even in the midsts of a world war.

I highly recomend this movie to anyone who wants to be taken away to another time and place for a while to witness a love that will capture you for a lifetime.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "1945 Verbode Liefde [1945 Forbidden Love]"
Review: One could easily term this work "The Summer of 1945".

It daring, forbidden, explicit, and let's face it folks - just try to sell this one in Hollywood! A ... movie? Not really, more about a meeting of lonely souls, it's spontanous and most of us have been there at one point or another.

MAARTEN SMIT [a young Leonardo DiCaprio] astounds with this performance, no American equivalent! ANDREW KELLEY [the soldier] is a young DiNiro. Director - Roeland Kerbosch handles this subject with great sensitivity. The novel by Rudi van Dantzig - autobiographical? Odd, Kubrick touched on this platonically with "Lolita" [the movie JFK condemned.]; Visconti gave us "Death In Venice", and the scenes {deleted} from "The Victors" [the French war waif?]; yet "For a Lost Soldier" moves with tremendous sincerety - perhaps "Rapture"; with Dean Stockwell and Melvyn Douglas?

Fortunately this video is in letterboxed format although the color control is a little distorted. There's always Pasolini's "SALO" - a different look at WW11.

For the sincere viewer - you'll not be the same after this one.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the Best movie I've seen
Review: The movie portrayed a love story between a 12 year old Dutch boy and a Canadian solider in 1945. However unthinkable or unacceptable people think such a relation is, the love between the 2 characters was anything but real. The story is beautifully portrayed and the movie extremely well-done (except the beginning and the ending dancing part). However, if one does not have an open mind, this movie will probably be too much. I really wish someday our puritan US will also be able to break free from social taboos and make movies that accurately describes every aspect of our society.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: ... no comment, really ... but, I have a few words.
Review: To all you people out there who want to get this movie, I personally thought that this movie isn't all that. There are other gay foreign flims that are better ... The jist of the story is a young lad from Holland who falls in love with a Canadian solider. There is really nothing all that great about it. There were some high points, but it was a drama itself altogether. ... If you like kiddies ... or into the Father/Son relationships, this is for you.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Touching and Bittersweet
Review: Perhaps a bit taboo for most US audiences, I found this movie to be touching and bittersweet.

Based on the autobiography by Rudi Van Dantzig, "For A Lost Soldier" takes place during the end of WW II in the Netherlands. It's the story of a young boy in Amsterdam whose parents send him to live in the country (Friesland) for his own safety. A family who had initially asked for a young girl ends up being young Jeroen's "adoptive" family. Jeroen is coming of age, being the tender age of 12, and is making discoveries on his own, especially his sexuality. He doesn't necessarily understand his feelings at first, until the arrival of the Canadian Liberators in 1945.

One particular soldier, Walt Cook, takes an interest in young Jeroen and a friendship blossoms between the two. Heit, Jeroen's adoptive father, sees that there is more to their friendship than meets the eye, and lets him know that he sees what's going on. This doesn't bother the other soldiers, however. In fact, as other soldiers are courting young girls in the village, so does Walt "court" young Jeroen. The two fall in love with each other, and a sexual relationship does indeed develop.

Perhaps it's Walt not wanting to face the hurt Jeroen will eventually face, but he fails to tell Jeroen that his platoon will be leaving. Jeroen is crushed when he realizes that Walt is gone the next day, and tries in vain as he searches the village for him. A heart-breaking scene.

But Jeroen's mother returns for her son, and the first thing he tells her is "I think you should know I am going to America!"

The film has some beautiful cinematography. Maarten Smit was excellent as Jeroen, as was Andrew Kelley (who is a dancer in the Royal Dutch Ballet) who played Walt. Rudi Van Dantzig, himself, has choreographed for the Royal Dutch Ballet, and it's obvious he had a hand in choosing just the right person to play the "Lost Soldier".

This kind of film couldn't have been made anywhere else due to the age of young Jeroen. Overall, an excellent film. Haunting, brutally honest, and bittersweet.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: You need to be strong
Review: The movie put you against the wall, by sure. A brillant plot, excelent performances and a very very difficult matter. This movie will remove all sleep emotions, and if you can liberate yourself of any kind of prejudice at the end you need to revaluate all your values. Everything's on trial: a kind of relationship usually condemned by everybody, told as a tender love affair that, I dare to say, is pure and satisfying. My only concern are the performances of the first and last parts of the movie, that maybe does not match the brilliant and puzzling middle part. Anyway, you must see it, but being strong.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Trying hard not to be bias
Review: There is a reason why there are age restrictions in sexual situations when it comes to these matters. An older person will always have control of the situation, where as the young, innocent and curious person is all too naive, and ready to try something that they concieve as good because it is being presented by an adult, whom they so much are ready to become. We all have the right to grow, experiment, and experience what life has to offer us, but within our realm and circle. I understand the boy's curiosity though, for when I was, but only four years older than he, I experienced the same. Although not bitter, I know that I can never part take in something such as this. I give it three stars because this movie, inspite of it's story, is well acted and tastefully done. Would only recommend it to individuals that can openly see it for what it's worth, without getting too upset over the subject.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Surprising and courageous
Review: It is not often a film seen in the USA can deal with the kind of subject and not fall into the knee-jerk reaction of condemnation. Admittedly the film was not made in America. However, I found the film something of a challenge. For a long time after I saw I retain images of scenes: the solder and the boy dancing and how free the boy must have felt; the pained suppression of feeling of the boy with his friend from home; and the intimate scenes of the soldier and the boy. Some have noted how the boy is left alone at the end, hurt that the relationship ended with no closure. This was a time of war. Unforturnately, soldiers forget themselves and fall in love for a brief time. They have left lovers and babies. For the boy, however, it seemed that the pain went away and he was left with a beautiful dream. I am not sure this excuses anything. But sometimes those initial moments when we learn about life are both painful and beautiful.


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