Michiel de Ruyter (film)

Michiel de Ruyter
Dutch film poster
Directed by Roel Reiné
Screenplay by Lars Boom
Alex van Galen
Michael Loumeau
Produced by Klaas de Jong
Starring Frank Lammers
Barry Atsma
Egbert-Jan Weber
Cinematography Roel Reiné
Edited by Radu Ion
Music by Trevor Morris
Production
company
Farmhouse Film & TV
Distributed by A-Film Benelux
Release dates
  • 26 January 2015 (world premiere)
  • 29 January 2015 (Netherlands)
Running time
 130 minutes
Country Netherlands
Languages Dutch
English
French
Budget €8 million
Box office €5.7 million

Michiel de Ruyter (Dutch pronunciation: [miˈxil də ˈrœy̯tər]) is a 2015 Dutch film about the 17th-century admiral Michiel de Ruyter directed by Roel Reiné. The film had its world premiere in the Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum in Amsterdam on 26 January 2015 and has been released in cinemas in the Netherlands on 29 January 2015. On the English promotional website, the film has the title Admiral.

Cast

Director Roel Reiné (center, wearing a hat) with cast and crew members at the film set in 2014

The first choice for the title role was Yorick van Wageningen, but he could not come to a financial agreement with the producers. On 9 May 2014, the full cast was presented to the press.

Production

Film set of Michiel de Ruyter near Lelystad in the Netherlands with the frigate Shtandart

The film was directed by Roel Reiné and produced by Klaas de Jong. It had a budget of 8 million euro. Among the film locations are Zeeland, Texel, the Wadden Sea, and the Ridderzaal.

Reception

Pre-release

Prior to its release, several protest groups had accused the film of glorifying the colonial history of the Netherlands although references to colonialism in the film are almost absent. The film makes a minor reference to the Dutch East India Company, which contributed highly to the welfare of a small group of wealthy merchants in the 17th century in the Low Countries, and to the trading vessels that were protected by the navy under Michiel de Ruyter. The film's main subjects, apart from Ruyter himself, are the internal politics of the country and the oligarchy that formed the ruling class at the time, including the brutal murder of Johan de Witt and the complicated relationship with England, up to the engagement of the William III of Orange with the English princess Mary.

Post-release

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 67% based on six reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. In a review for the Los Angeles Times, Robert Abele writes: "With loving shots of booming, towering ships so dominant, and decades squeezed into what feels like a week of action, there's barely enough time to develop De Ruyter as a character in his own movie, or even successfully explain his war strategies."

Awards

See also