Admiral (2015)

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Dutch cinema is ofcourse not widely known as one of the world's greatest contributions to world cinema, but in Admiral we have a film that is not lacking in its ambition, and while it does a lot of things right, it doesn't really manage to capture the bottom line of making the audience care about it. I like slow movies. The reason i prefer slow movies over fast ones is because films are a cinematic experience which need to sink into and be absorbed by the audience which will only succeed if certain sequences are drawn out instead of rushed through. Unfortunately, this is exactly what did happen with Admiral, as it seems to choke on its own haste. I personally do not know much about the history of Mr. de Ruyter, but i understand the film is supposedly very historically accurate. However, in its ambition to create historical accuracy the film seems to suffer from trying to put too many important historical battles in its 2 hour 31 running time, which results in extreme gaps in timelines after which the audience gets the idea that we missed huge chunks of the story. What is essentially the story of Admiral is him setting out to sea, fighting some battles against the English or French, coming home for some dramatic political or family scenes, and setting out again. It is also a picture that seems obsessed with creating an incredible amount of drama in nearly every scene, with its grandiose music by Trevor Morris ( While the music is great, its epic parts are used far too much ) & stylish slow motion techniques. While this might seem great there really isn't much drama in the end because the movie's pace is too fast for the characters to be fleshed out.Admittedly the costume design, music & in certain scenes the cinematography is all very pleasing, but a lot of the greatest visual shots in the film are cut short because the movie always seems to be in a hurry for some reason. It seems to think it is in a race while wanting to get to the finish line as quickly as possible. If you create impressive visuals, director Roel Reine should atleast let the audience appreciate it instead of cutting it short so quickly. Most of the shots on the ships are basically slow motion shots of pieces of wood and splinters flying through the air, which is all ofcourse stylishly filmed, but in the end has little substance. Reine also simply moves the camera way too much all the time. Even the simplest scenes feature overly dynamic camera movements for no apparent reason other than to keep the modern low attentionspan audience interested. It also for some reason features a lot under hip height shots ( Especially on the ships ), so except for some of the wideshots of the naval battles we really don't see much of what is happening most of the time.Frank Lammers is a pretty bad actor, and his performance as M. de Ruyter is just laughable at best. It also quite possibly has the worst casting ever of the country's greatest actor Rutger Hauer, and the guy who played William the third was pretty mediocre in his own right. The only truly impressive performance was from Sanne Langelaar, who played Michiel's wife, as she seems to be the only person that seems to truly be emotionally connected to the events of the film. A lot of people die, including some of its protagonists, which ofcourse results in overly dramatic slow motion and orchestral music in order to invoke emotions in the audience. However, this doesn't work as well as it should because the film doesn't really make you care about its characters and its world, since all it seems obsessed with is haste. Without substance these dramatic scenes become melodramatic scenes which in turn makes the film somewhat pretentious. It's great ambition cannot be denied, but in the end it is quite devoid of relatability.While it is a valiant effort of creating a dramatic view of de Ruyter's life and at times it is visually great, it does not succeed in making the audience care that much because it seems to be obsessed with its own haste.

I was looking forward to this film. With roots in the Netherlands, and a fan of historical adventure films, this was to be a fun experience. But the film quickly started to seem suspect. The cinematography was cheep. Lots of low angle shots of people on ships so all you saw was the actor and sky. An old technique used when on a set. Worked 75 years ago but not so much now. And the music...blasting throughout. It became clear someone felt the movie needed lots of loud thunderous music in every second and every frame to cover over an otherwise thin dialogue and stock visuals. Sure it has action. But the production values are just not real or gritty. No comparison to a film like Master and Commander. As though this project was desperately trying to be Hollywood and by the time it got there Hollywood and British production values passed it by a decade before.

***Contains some spoilers**** I like the movie for the action, the settings, the cloths, the ships, etc. although for sure there will be errors made there. A movie like this will always have some historical inaccuracies. European history is complicated and Dutch history is no exception. That being said, there is a line between inaccuracies and plain distortion of the facts. I am Dutch and not a royalist at all, on the contrary. But I wonder if the producers and directors had some anti-Orange agenda. First of all the insinuation of homosexuality with William the 3rd. It was too much. At the time -when he became king of England, Scotland and Ireland- there were rumors. But he married. His wife had a miscarriage and could not conceive afterwards. They apparently loved each other very much, although he also had a mistress. Bentinck (his insinuated lover) had a bunch of children. Next thing, his implication in the assassination of de DeWitt brothers. There is no historical proof of that although it cannot be excluded. Who was part of that conspiracy was Tromp and Kievit of course. Then the scene that William forced de Ruyter to a 'suicide' mission, threatening the safety of his family if he wouldn't go. Again, no proof of that.The struggle between the Statists and the Organgist was hard, often brutal but let's not taint this history with invented stories to spice up the movie. That period in Dutch history was indeed epic and defined a nation. De Ruyter saved the Republic on more than one occasion. He was a brilliant sailor and commander.

This movie is Fabulously awful.The acting is so bad.The storyline lacks any depth and the characters off the historical figures are utterly flat.I am always amazed how it is possible that a director does not see these things.I mean it's a historical drama but the language spoken is utterly 21th century dutch.The main character Frank Lammers's character as Michiel de Ruyter is totally superficial lacking any passion and shows us nothing as to what kind of man the protagonist was.Of course it's a dutch movie so we will be seeing a tit or two flying about for no purpose whatsoever. Do they ever learn in this country?....the slow-mo shots of f.i the sea-wars get so boring becourse they are merely gimmicks to show off what's possible with cinematography nowadays but..a movie like this is fun to watch...you''l roll of y'r couch laughing....maybe that's the power of this monster?