The Forgotten Battle

Being from Belgium myself I found this movie very interesting to watch. De battle for the Schelde (a river in The Netherlands and Belgium that is the main entrance for the harbor of Antwerpen) is strategically very important. For once no battle of the bulge, Normandy, or other famous battles, but one that has not been filmed before. The Netherlands and Belgium don't release a lot of movies but when they do it's most of the time quality, and so is this one. You don't necessary have to have Hollywood budgets to make a good movie. Unknown actors (at least to the wider audience) performed really well in this war/drama. The battle scenes looked very realistic, hard and brutal. But it's not only about the battle scenes, it's also about the oppressor and the oppressed, what people felt like in those days and in that area. Zeeland is a beautiful part of The Netherlands and even though they filmed it in Lithuania (mostly because of budgetary problems) it really looked like Zeeland (a place I visited many times). De Slag Om De Schelde (or The Forgotten Battle for the English title) will please anyone that is interested in WW II, not only for Belgians and Dutch people.

The Forgotten Battle is a World War II film directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. And written by Paula van der Oest. The film follows a British glider pilot, a Dutch boy fighting on the German side and a Dutch female resistance member who all end up involved in the Battle of the Scheldt that was fought in 1944. Their choices differ, but their goal is the same: freedom. We get to see the battle through these three perspectives, this storytelling is similar to what Christopher Nolan did with Dunkirk. But the similarities kind of ends there, the screenplay is flawed but it's mostly quite great. Where the film succeeds is the cinematography and direction, it's visually a very pleasing movie. It shows how it's become one of the most expensive Dutch films. I thought the film would focus mainly on the battle but I was wrong, it's about the people that the battle and war is affecting, a more human story which I'm totally behind. So it's more character driven than action heavy, but it's of course a war movie and that's shown brilliantly with imagery you'll continue to remember. But with it being focused on three perspectives, the pacing gets worse and it makes the film feel dragged out, story especially as events take too long of a time to build up. Maybe a shorter run time would have helped the film or a different screenplay that focused on mainly two perspectives, the Allies and Axis. But I'll admit that the story arc regarding Teuntje Visser is worthy to be told as it goes hand in hand with Marinus van Staveren's own character arc which is probably the film's best.

The acting in this film was terrific and full of emotion and authenticity. The cast has Gijs Blom as Marinus van Staveren, Jamie Flatters as William Sinclair, Susan Radder as Teuntje Visser and Tom Felton as Tony Turner. Felton being the only actor I recognized who was great in this, but the unknown cast is because how it's a Dutch production which makes The Forgotten Battle even more authentic. I can only give praise to the cast's performances, from the leads to supporting cast to guest stars. Everyone did a terrific job.

Though I did say the script was kind of flawed, there's no lie that Paula van der Oest can write characters and dialogue well. It's where the script is positive, the ability to humanize the German soldiers which often become black and white. With help of the director and actors, the characters are superbly done. The sound design and musical score is brilliant. An average Dutch feature film at the time contained about 500-600 separate audio tracks, while this film has well over 1700. It says something about the production, and some sounds were even arranged by Charles Maynes who did the sound for Clint Eastwood's WW2 film, Letters from Iwo Jima. It's truly award worthy work. Something else that was great is of course the makeup and costume department. The sets, production and art design. Honestly the whole production is impressive. What made me truly love the film was the final 30 minutes or so when all the build up comes together and the big battle is shown, it's everything a battle on this grand scale should be. Chaotic, immersive, engaging and simply just real. It was filmed and edited similarly to the D-Day sequence in Saving Private Ryan which made us feel that we were in the character's shoes in the battle and I felt the same way in this sequence, honestly the entire movie.

The Forgotten Battle isn't meant to romanize war, it shows the horrors of war on all three sides. The Allies, Axis and civilians. It does it perfectly. If it would have shown more of the battle, locations and such, and had a better script and pacing, I would have found the film to be brilliant. With the beautiful cinematography and everything on the technical side being top notch, I can only say that it's great. Solid 9/10 but not a masterpiece.

Based on true events in Belgium/Netherlands of Allies recapturing the Port Of Antwerp, and the battle to expel the Germans forces still holding onto the critical North Sea seaport channel (the Scheldt) near the end of WWII in Europe.

The film takes it to the ground and personal level, focused on three young protagonists, a British glider pilot, a Dutch-born German solder, and a Dutch civilian girl.

The film is excellent in every regard, winning multiple Dutch film festival awards including Best Film of 2020.

An intimate portrayal of characters based on true events, this film holds back nothing in telling its story.

I'll leave the synopsis at that so as not to give away too much detail, but worth the view for certain.

Photography, direction, sound editing, casting, acting, battle scenes, and even the thankfully subtle soundtrack fill are all spot on excellent.

*Approximately two-thirds of the dialogue is in English, appropriately interspersed with German and Dutch and clear subtitles, making it an easy watch even for those who avoid subtitle films.

One of the best foreign (Dutch) WWII films you will find, and I highly recommend seeing it.

Wow. I was very surprised by this movie. This is the best movie I have seen about WW2 in a very long time. It really might rank up there with some of the best war movies.

The odd thing is there are so many characters so they really had to crunch for time to develop the characters in the space of two hours. With the various battle sequences along the way.

I just finished watching it and I'm still a bit shocked at how it got to me. Very Good Movie. 8/10.

De slag om de Schelde (2020) is a Dutch movie co-written and directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. It was shown in the U. S. with the title "The Forgotten Battle." The actual title translates as "The Battle of the Scheldt." We in the U. S. may never have heard of it. That's because Canadian troops bore the brunt of the battle against the Germans. I'm sure it's not a forgotten battle in Canada or Holland.

Gijs Blom portrays Marinus van Staveren, a Dutch citizen who is fighting on the side of the Germans. He hates Jews--and probably Communists--so he volunteered to fight in the German army. When the movie opens, he's fighting on the Russian front, but he gets transferred to Holland.

Jamie Flatters plays William Sinclair. He's a British glider pilot, but his glider is shot down and he lands in Holland.

Susan Radder plays Teuntje Visser, a Dutch woman who works in the mayor's office. Jan Bijvoet portrays her father--Doctor Visser--who treats Germans and Dutch equally well.

The complexity of the movie is the interaction among these people, as the Canadian forces try to overcome the German forces in the area called The Scheldt. (I checked, and it really was important for the allies to possess the region, and equally important for the Germans to prevent this.)

Of course, in a war movie, there's going to be blood and carnage. However, what keeps this film from being just another WWII movie is the complicated plot, that goes in directions you may not expect.

De slag om de Schelde has a pretty weak IMDb rating of 7.1. I thought it was better than that, and rated it 8.