VividSimon Simply Perfect

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

preppy-3 Story about three guys who are 19 or 20--Hans (Maarten Spanjer), Rien (Hans von Tongeren) and Eef (Toon Agterberg). They live in a small industrial town in Holland. They have nothing in common except for their love of motocross. Then sexy Fientje (Renee Soutendijk) moves to town and makes a play for each of them thinking they have (or will have) plenty of money and she can live off them.Great movie. It is vulgar and VERY sexually graphic--there's plenty of sex talk, full frontal shots of women AND men, simulated sex, a gay rape scene and a hardcore gay sex scene. Still they are all needed for the story and to understand the motivations of the guys. It's well-directed by Paul Verhoeven, has a pulsating soundtrack, moves quickly and has good acting--especially by Soutendijk and Agterberg. It has tragic and hopeful endings for all the guys done in a realistic and truthful manner. Also Rutger Hauer has a small role as a conceited motocross champion.Verhoeven (who also wrote the script) was attacked for this film. It was called anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-cripple and way too sexually explicit (I do wonder how he got some of the actors to agree to perform in some of these scenes--especially the gay rape). He only made one more film in Holland ("The 4th Man") before coming to Hollywood and turning out one blockbuster after another. This was barely shown in the US and was put on cable in a horribly cut R rated print with dubbing! This review is based on the subtitled directors cut. This film may be way too graphic for some viewers but I was fascinated through the whole thing. Recommended.

erikweijers Writer Gerard Soeteman has called Spetters a modern day fairy tale. Viewed as such, it can be forgiven some of its rough edges and far-fetched plot turns. The three princes/spetters all take a shot at winning the love of the heroine. Destiny unfolds and each man learns who he is: a tragic hero, a repressed homosexual and an average loser. The men also measure who has the biggest cock.The movie apparently received a lot of criticism from gay and women rights movements of the time. In retrospect, I think this is because the gay character is treated just as cruelly by life as the other characters. Probably a more politically correct movie maker than Verhoeven would have made the homosexual the moral winner. I agree that his story is described in pretty broad strokes, to put it mildly. Of course, in real life, no person will discover his sexual identity after a rape. Still, I would defend Verhoeven here with the fairy tale argument.The protests of feminists are somewhat less understandable. Were they protesting against the fact that the heroine is a cold-hearted gold digger? But there is also a good-natured female character in the movie. And besides, why should a movie portray an ideal world? The camera work is great and the staging of the scenes has a nice flow to it. The motorcycle stunts are well done for a movie made on this budget. It is Verhoevens craftsmanship which keeps the movie entertaining all the while.

Libretio SPETTERS Aspect ratio: 1.66:1Sound format: MonoWhilst standing at the crossroads of their lives, three oversexed teenagers (Hans van Tongeren, Toon Agterberg and Maarten Spanjer) are driven apart by a beautiful gold-digger (Renée Soutendijk) who seeks to benefit from their mutual ambitions.Maverick filmmaker Paul Verhoeven turns the much-reviled 'teensploitation' subgenre on its head with this uncompromising depiction of three naive young men and their difficult journey from adolescence to maturity. Rebelling against their conservative small-town upbringing, the protagonists are forced to reap the whirlwind of their actions, leading to tragedy for some, redemption for others. Verhoeven's script (co-written with his regular collaborator Gerard Soeteman) tackles hot-button issues like sex, disability, religious faith and homosexuality in an up-front manner, leading some Dutch critics to berate the film's alleged 'misogyny' and 'homophobia' (similar accusations were levelled against some of Verhoeven's Hollywood features, including BASIC INSTINCT and SHOWGIRLS), but these complaints become diminished under scrutiny: True, Soutendijk's heartbreaker is little more than an avaricious trollop, but she's the only one who remains loyal to van Tongeren in the wake of a devastating accident which changes his life forever. It's also true that Agterberg is driven out of the closet by a vicious sexual assault which occurs late in the film, but this episode represents his passage into adulthood, giving him the courage to confront his demons, including his brutal, ultra-religious father.Beautifully filmed, and acted with conviction by a sterling cast (there are extended cameos from Verhoeven regulars Jeroen Krabbé and Rutger Hauer), the movie benefits from an extraordinary sexual candor, light years removed from the cowardly R-rated rubbish flooding international cinemas at the time (PORKY'S, MEATBALLS, etc.). And though the sexual imagery here is only fleeting, it's also remarkably potent, and the actors are to be commended for their bravery. Sadly, van Tongeren - a hugely talented actor with a bright future in international cinema - committed suicide two years after the film was completed.NB. The film's title is Dutch slang for handsome, arrogant young men.(Dutch dialogue)

bart-117 I just saw this film last night and was really amazed by it. Unlike the Verhoeven films that most American audiences are familiar with (Robocop, Total Recall etc) it was a compelling coming of age piece set in Holland. Like most of his early Dutch films, you can feel many of the hallmarks of his style coming together and it's a testament to his skill as a director that he can make a small character-driven film about ordinary people like SPETTERS every bit as compelling as a gigantic special effects driven spectacle like ROBOCOP.This is an 80's disco motocross movie that has very little disco and very little motocross. What it has are many strong characters, all of them navigating life transitions and trying to figure out their place in the world.As for the "shocking" scenes that a lot of people are referring to in the posts, there is a fair amount of sex and nudity (male especially) in this film but to call it "shocking" is misleading. The reason the film's frank treatment of sexuality is so eye opening is the way Verhoeven handles it as no big deal. Two men sneak into a subway for a tryst, and you actually see one of the guys go down on the other guy. Two pairs of teenagers sneak into an abandoned building to have sex and you see it. Or when a man and a woman lay in bed talking after having sex, you see the guy totally naked as well as the girl. What happens happens and it's presented as is.Verhoeven doesn't cut away from nudity, but at the same time doesn't artificially sexualize it by zooming in it, laying in sexy background music etc etc. Like the co-ed shower scene in STARSHIP TROOPERS, it's presented in a completely matter of fact way. Verhoeven doesn't allude to anything in these scenes, and it gives the film a power and honesty and that wouldn't be there otherwise.Overall I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND this movie to anyone.Bart Blackstone * Film Club Hollywood, CA