Soldaat Van Oranje (aka Soldier Of Orange) (1977)

A group of university students in the Netherlands lead a carefree life even though the clouds of Hitler's Germany and WWII hover over their future. When the Nazis invade Holland, their lives take different paths. There have been countless films about WWII seen through the eyes of the Americans, British, Germans, Japanese, Italians and French. But this is one of the few that examine the Dutch experience. The director Paul Verhoeven (ROBOCOP) does it up in a grand "epic" scale (the film even has an intermission) and the scope of the film is fairly ambitious. Though the film begins with the interactions and fate of the five students, the second half of the movie focuses on just two (Rutger Hauer, Jeroen Krabbe). Though the actors are clearly too old for their parts, the actors acquit themselves nicely though this isn't a film where the acting need be much more than adequate. As far as WWII films go, this is certainly one of the better ones. It keeps it real without any unnecessary jingoism or sentimentality. With Edward Fox, Susan Penhaligon, Huib Rooymans, Lex Van Delden, Eddy Habbema and Belinda Meuldijk.