Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

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.

movieguy81007 This movie is about Motocrossing one of my favorite sports. I think this movie is better than Saturday Night Fever. This movie would never pass as an R rating in the United States. It would probably be rated NC-17. All of Paul Verhoeven's films except for Hollow Man were first rated X or NC-17. The music is great in this movie. I wonder if it is made by the same people who did the music for Turkish Delight. I will probably find out about it on IMDb. I have been with IMDb since 1996. They give the best information on movies better than any other site. Rutger Hauer has a cameo role in this. The only version of this I have seen is the Director's Cut. So I have never seen the cut version.

Infofreak 'Spetters' begins like one of the countless American teen coming of age "romps" we had to endure in the 1980s (....shudder...), but being a Paul Verhoeven movie things quickly become darker and more subversive. Verhoeven's most recent Hollywood effort 'Hollow Man' was a stinkeroo, but this shouldn't detract from his past achievements. Especially his brilliant output in the 1980s, a decade where mainstream movie making hit a new low (since surpassed I'm sad to say). Verhoeven didn't direct a bad movie in the 80s, which is something very few American directors can say truthfully. Even David Lynch gave us 'Dune' during this period. 'Spetters' is much tougher and confronting than you'd expect from scanning the basic plot line - three young horny guys pursue their dreams which centre around motorcross. That's what makes this movie so surprising and memorable. Verhoeven regulars Rutger Hauer and Jeroen Krabbe pop up in quite good cameos, but the movie is carried by the three young unknown (to international audiences) male leads. All are well cast and impressive. As is the foxy Renee Soutendijk, who would go on to play a major part in Verhoeven's next movie, the brilliant erotic thriller 'The Fourth Man'. 'Spetters' is raw and unpolished compared to many of Verhoeven's subsequent movies, but is definitely worth watching. Another winner from this often maligned director who I'm certain will one day get the attention and praise he deserves.