Spetters
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| Spetters | |
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 International DVD cover of Spetters |
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| Directed by | Paul Verhoeven |
| Produced by | Joop van den Ende |
| Written by | Gerard Soeteman Jan Wolkers (uncredited) |
| Starring | Hans van Tongeren Renée Soutendijk Toon Agterberg Maarten Spanjer Marianne Boyer Jeroen Krabbé Rutger Hauer |
| Music by | Ton Scherpenzeel Kayak |
| Cinematography | Jost Vacano |
| Editing by | Ine Schenkkan |
| Distributed by | The Samuel Goldwyn Company |
| Release date(s) | February 25, 1980 [1] |
| Running time | 120 min. |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Language | Dutch |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Spetters, a Dutch film released in 1980 directed by Paul Verhoeven.
Spetters led to many protests across the board about the caricatural manner in which Verhoeven portrayed gays, Christians, the police, the press and more. Although Verhoeven made one more film in the Netherlands, it was the response to Spetters that led to his leaving the Netherlands for the more liberal film culture of the Hollywood of that day.
The careers of Maarten Spanjer and Renee Soutendijk were launched by this film, but it did not do much for the other young lead actors, and Hans van Tongeren finally committed suicide in 1982.
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[edit] Plot
The film, which is violent and sexually explicit, is a high-speed coming of age movie which centers on three young men who are dreaming of an escape from their provincial surroundings by means of a motorcross career: young motocross racing champion Rien (Hans van Tongeren (nl)), another racer who thinks he has the goods, but does not, Hans (Maarten Spanjer (nl)), and mechanic and Bible thumping Calvinist Eef (Toon Agterberg (nl)).
When they run into a young seductress (Renee Soutendijk (nl)) and her homosexual brother, and into national motorcross champion Witkamp (Rutger Hauer (nl)) and the national press that follows in his wake, their ability to change their lives into top gear determines their future.
The film has been compared to Saturday Night Fever, because that movie also has young protagonists trying to overcome the grind of day-to-day life, and preceded Spetters by three years.
The original, uncensored version has an extended, very graphic, homosexual gang-rape scene, intended as punishment for a hustler who makes an illicit living by blackmailing homosexuals he spies on during their encounters in a local park.
[edit] Trivia
The word "spetter" (plural: "spetters") is a (now outdated) word with the same meaning as the English word hunk. It also means "splashes" and thereby refers to the chips stall where Renée Soutendijk's character works, when she lowers the chips into the frying pan.
[edit] External links
- Spetters at the Internet Movie Database
- Spetters at Allmovie
- Spetters at Rotten Tomatoes
- Symbolic Power and Religious Impotence in Paul Verhoeven’s Spetters in Journal of Religion and Film, October 2003
[edit] References
- ^ Spetters, de wording van een cynisch sprookje, September 24, 2002; accessed on October 5, 2006
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