Yesterday I saw Spetters again after a long long time, and it still does it for me. It's even become a trip down memory-land back to the good old eighties when I was a teenager myself.It's a story that could have happened in real life. It shows the conservativeness of the heavily reformed Christians in the Netherlands in an excellent way and it still goes like that nowadays. The Netherlands are well known for it's liberality, but be aware, there is a other side to the Netherlands to that isn't liberal at all and it's shows in this movie. The way Eef's father is raising him and the way Eef is resisting his father is something i've seen a lot in real life.One slight downfall from the movie is the way Eef found out he was gay. As he didn't actually seem to have any problems with the ladies, it's hard to buy that he suddenly became gay after he was raped. There were not any signals before. As for the homophobic humor, well, we all like to think we have the biggest one and the way it was handled is typical dutch. We are liberal about sex and like to joke about it. You feel for the characters and it's got heart. And that's always a hell of a achievement.Furthermore i was surprised to see so many high raids by people outside the Netherlands. It's a typical liberal dutch story, so i'm surprised to see that people outside the Netherlands seem to understand the movie better then the people that commented the movie from the Netherlands.

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.

Spetters in dutch means roughly the plural form of splash.De spetters van water kwamen terecht op de tafel.The splash of water came directly on the table.It is also very similar to the English word splatter.Dutch and English are both germanic languages so there are many similarwords.This movie is unique in that it starred Rutger Hauer, Jeroen Krabbe and was directed by Paul Verhoeven, later of Basic Instinct fame and unfortunately also Show Girls. These actors and director have gone back and forth and have done work in Holland and also here in America. Jeroen Krabbe was in The Fugitive and Prince of Tides with Barbra Streisand.

"Spetters" by Paul Verhoeven is sort of a Dutch coming-of-age movie about a number of teenagers that want to get the **** out a small, depressing and boring town. Nothing new here.The problem is that this movie can't decide what it wants to be. There are too many serious topics to consider this a comedy, but the characters are way too one-dimensional and the situations and developments are way too absurd to consider this a drama. Some scenes are dead serious, some scenes are (supposed to be) funny, it all goes back and forth in a very awkward manner. I know it's possible to mix drama and comedy in a successful manner, but it certainly isn't happening in "Spetters". Then, of course, there's an awful lot of sex and nudity. People not from the Netherlands might be shocked how far this movie goes, but then again, I've seen worse in Dutch movies. Suffice it to say that the nudity adds very little and isn't the least bit erotical or tantalizing. It's just there. Finally, since this is an old Dutch movie, the sound is utterly terrible. The characters all seem to be lip-synching (poorly), the sound effects don't sound right, and the background music is terrible. Although Dutch is my native language, subtitles wouldn't hurt. The acting is decent, though, (there are a lot of famous actors in this movie), at least by Dutch standards. Paul Verhoeven is great when directing over-the-top action spectacles (Starship Troopers, Total Recall) or dark thrillers (Basic Instinct), but he should probably stay away from drama, comedy, or any combination thereof. *1/2 out **** stars