MovieChat Forums > De storm (2009) Discussion > Predictable pile of cliches

Predictable pile of cliches


Contains "Spoilers".

I could have predicted this movie in advance.
It is Dutch, so there will be some sex and nudity, it is a disaster movie so.... it will be about everything but the disaster.

The general look of the movie is Okay, it sort of feels like the 1950s, not too many mistakes there.
Although there aren't enough people smoking.

The movie is suffering from what I call "The Titanic Complex".
In short, a movie is made about a historical event, the event is incredible, it involves hundreds or thousands of real people who had the most amazing real experiences during this event.
REAL history is offering the writer of the movie a HUGE amount of drama, real original stories involving real people.
Yet, in the case of Titanic, all this is shoved aside and made as nothing more then a backdrop to some unbelievable silly story between made up people.
While thousands are drowning, couples who have been married for years are forced to say goodbye, children see their parents for the last time, people do their duty while they know it will kill them.... in stead of watching any of that, Titanic is about two horny teenagers who have a quicky in a car.
And as the real disaster is not exciting enough a chase and even gun fight is added...

This Dutch movie is suffering from the same problem.

We have a real disaster here, almost 2000 people drowned in the Netherlands alone, countless buildings destroyed.
Very traumatic, many heroic stories, many heart breaking moments of real interesting people losing loved ones.

Yet we are told to care about some farm girl who bunked up with some seaman and got herself knocked up.
Of course everyone involved in this movie was not an adult in the 1950s so all the cliches are mentioned.
Oh society is so backwards, so religious, oh evil people are all so mean to the naughty farmers daughter...
Completely ridiculous scene where people don't want to rescue a girl because she's had a baby out of wedlock...
For god sake, these people just lived trough the war, they would all know some unmarried women!
Isn't it comfortable to look down at our ancestors just because they had different values?
Try doing that with people who are not from another time but from another culture and you'll be in trouble.

Anyway, here we are, people are drowning, entire villages destroyed, it is horrible.
One good thing I can say about the movie; the effects look decent.
But while all this is happening, while countless of people are traumatized for life... all we are told about is this one girl.
The night of storm is over in a flash and besides not even bothering to tell any of the other stories of that night, we're suddenly only caring about her trying to find her baby back... and of course... finding love again.
We can't have movies without romance...
Then of course we add a spot of kidnapping...
In a very unbelievable and sometimes silly way, we get this "exciting" race against time.
Ohhhh thousands have lost everything, hundreds are still fighting for their lives... but who cares, will she find that baby?

If we actually cared about her, we might have been gripped by her ordeal.
But we don't.
When the story begins we're not given many reasons to bond with our heroine, or her family.
We barely know them when things go wrong.
All we know is that the girl couldn't keep her legs closed till she was married.
Are we supposed to feel sorry for her and like her automatically for being a "rebel" in old fashioned religious ignorant 1950s Holland?
Well didn't work for me.
Her parents lived trough the war, then had to live having an unmarried daughter with baby living under her roof, their story would be much more interesting.

Oh well, things go wrong.
And after it all goes wrong the moviemakers try to make us care more about the girl by telling her story in flashbacks.
This doesn't work.
While her family is dying around her... she thinks back to making the baby.
Yes nice, your family just drowned and you're thinking about hanky panky.
Charming!

The rest of the movie is always about just a few people.
Maybe it is typical of the modern age, we care more about individuals then we do about a community, more about a single person then a group.
Of course it is a good thing to emphasize a smaller story as part of a bigger story, make it personal, bring it closer to the audience.
But that doesn't mean you can just forget about everyone else, make the suffering of countless others just a backdrop for your fun exciting action movie.

Anyway, the movie offers no surprises, nothing unexpected, nothing original.
You can pretty much predict whatever happens from beginning till end.
All the human conflict... is resolved just as you think it will.
"Oh I am upset because of what you did, oh something happens, oh now I think about it a bit, oh now I love you again."

The only man who makes any sens is the man in a rowing boat.
When the heroes ask to be taken to a village in the danger zone because it is an emergency, he tells them there are emergencies everywhere that day.
He is right.
But all we care about is the farm girl and her baby.
While we already know that the baby will be save.

We are shown bodies and some destroyed farms, but that is the only time we get any sort of idea of the bat things happening outside our little cocoon story of the farmer's daughter.

The famous Dutch minority complex is also part of the story again, of course.
It seems that we can't tell stories about people simply being heroes, social, friendly, caring about each other and doing the right thing.
We just can't talk about history without showing people being egocentric, hypocritical, antisocial, cowardly, profiteering, betraying, etc, etc.
We just HAVE to show that those who behaved badly are later rewarded with medals.
We can't resist doing that sort of thing in Dutch movies.
Again I wonder if that is something that is part of today's cynical society.
I've seen a 1940s movie about a flood, it showed a group of people together, while the water rises in their barn.

Mind you the end is pretty horrific.
Losing a cute 1950s baby is bad, but getting a 1970s teenager in return is just too horrendous!!

Complaining about mistakes is almost as bad as complaining about complaining about mistakes.

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