The first time I saw BLACK BOOK, I was at a critics screening, so I saw it way before anyone else I knew (except selected Chicago colleagues, of course). I absolutely LOATHED this film, & I assumed others (especially women) would too. So imagine my amazement when various friends (several schvesters among them) told me they liked it. So I saw it a second time… maybe I was just in a bad mood that first day…? Nope, knowing Verhoeven was actually getting away with such literal s&%t made me even more disgusted & repulsed!
Sadly I’m not surprised that men get turned on by BLACK BOOK, but what’s up with the women? Here’s my guess: women are so starved for movie heroines that they’re willing to go along with “Rachel” just because she’s smart & feisty, no matter how irrational the plot & how demeaning the depiction.
SPOILER ALERT: Me, the “I’m going to have you first” line not only made me queasy, it told me right away who the villain was & ruined the second half of the film. Why does “Hans Akkermans” rescue Rachel from her shower of quite literal s&%t? No reason except so that he can give his speech revealing himself as the villain.
And tell me this: If we’re supposed to believe that Rachel was a fairly well-known singer before the war, then how can it be that NO ONE recognizes her when she performs, in public, after the Nazis occupy Holland? You’re telling me that Rachel is so hot in her red “Ellis” costume that every man in the audience is rendered deaf, dumb & blind?!?!?
And what’s up with the ending? The film opens on a kibbutz in Israel in 1956 & at the end, soldiers are swarming all over the screen. To what… save the kibbutzniks from the war in the Sinai?!?
I could go on & on, but I’ve already said more than I want to because this whole film is totally bogus & not deserving of serious time or attention. Feh!!!
