Spetters (1980) | Blu-ray Review

No one marries the cultural complexities of sexuality and its impassioned, sometimes grotesque aftershocks better than Paul Verhoeven, particularly before his uneven Hollywood years in the late 1980s through the 1990s. With a host of Dutch titles which had attracted international acclaim throughout the 1970s, which ranged from the explosive sexuality of Turkish Delight (1973) to his acclaimed WWII masterpiece Soldier of Orange (1977), Verhoeven entered the 1980s on the tide of his own transition with the controversial Spetters (1980), thus named for a now archaic Dutch slang connoting ‘hot shot’ or ‘hunk.’ Basically a coming-of-age drama concerning three friends who desire to be motorcycle racing champions on the outskirts of Rotterdam, Verhoeven’s sexually risqué reflection of early 80s Amsterdam was routinely denigrated and dismissed, while simultaneously affecting some of the good-will certain American producers had been fostering for the Dutch director.

While the failure of Spetters would be what would spur Verhoeven to seriously eye a career in Hollywood, he would make one final Dutch film before embarking on an English language filmography, 1983’s gloriously perverse neo-noir The 4th Man, which would once again showcase Renee Soutendijk as another kind of transfixing femme fatale.

Spetters was criticized for being homophobic, misogynistic, and anti-Catholic (an accusation which could be affixed to all Verhoeven’s titles) in its approximation of three friends and the woman they end up competing for. Verhoeven accomplishes a rather touching and complex portrayal of sexuality thwarted by rural and religious cultural mores, often further defined and complicated by class issues. In its two-hour running time, Spetters accomplishes a dizzying amount of character development interspersed with motorcycle racing (with sequences modeled after Wyler’s Ben-Hur), wherein Verhoeven favorites Rutger Hauer, playing the god-like icon the motorcyclists worship, and Jeroen Krabbe as the newscaster emcee.

Kino presents this neglected Verhoeven title in 1.66:1. Picture and sound quality are impressive in this new 4K restoration of the title (the label also resurrected the director’s first English language title, 1985’s Flesh+Blood as well). Verhoeven provides audio commentary on the transfer.

Film Review: ★★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
Disc Review: ★★★/☆☆☆☆☆