Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

KobusAdAstra 'De Aanslag' is an epic drama taking place in the final days of German occupation of the Netherlands in 1945.A Nazi collaborator, Ploeg, was shot dead in Haarlem, and the corpse dragged to the front of a neighbouring house. When the Nazis arrived they assumed that the people in that house were responsible, arrested the occupants and set the house alight. Several other people were also rounded up and all executed. The exception is Anton, the 12 year old son of the family who lived in the house, who was taken to the military HQ and later sent to his uncle in Amsterdam.These traumatic events had a serious psychological impact on Anton, particularly in his later life. Like a slow puzzle, the pieces began fitting together. As an adult Anton discovered who killed the collaborator, and who dragged the body to the front of their house, events that had such devastating effects.It is an excellent film, but in my view a little too long. It loses momentum halfway through, but fortunately picks up again towards the end. Acting, cinematography and music score are top-notch. It brings a powerful anti-war message, and also explores the power of public mass protest to change the social order. I still score it a very good 8/10.

rob-1944 My family is from Haarlem and I feel very close to the places, scenes, characters and the atmosphere that the movie generates. The fact that there are only a view productions regarding the Dutch resistance is very sad to me as the Dutch resistance was on of the best organized during the German occupation. However the man that was shot dead outside Anton Steenwijk's house was an NSB participant. He belonged to the Dutch Nazi Party. As previously stated, by some people in this thread, he was not a German Nazi but a Dutch collaborator. A lot of my family were in the resistance during the Nazi occupation. Some of them were shut by the Germans, in the dunes near Bloemendaal a/Zee, the site of the "Ere Begraaf Plaats" where Anton takes his daughter to find Truus Koster's grave, in the latter end of the movie. When I was young we often spend time there, to visit friends and family that were executed during those troublesome years. I dearly love this movie and would recommend it to anyone.

Gavno WARNING - SPOILERS WITHIN!!!I first became familiar with THE ASSAULT through the Book of the Month Club. In the package with my book was a slim paperback volume that I hadn't ordered... I suppose they were clearing out the warehouse, and a copy of THE ASSAULT got tossed into my order as a freebie.It sat around ignored for a few months, and then one afternoon I got bored and needed something to read.Wow. Straight through in one sitting.Some time later, with no advertising or promotion of any kind, THE ASSAULT showed up in a local theater.Because of the total lack of promotion, this film is probably the greatest "sleeper" of the decade. It probably only played in the US at Art houses and a very small number of other theaters. Anyone who has encountered the work of Satre or Camus will find themselves right at home with this film. It's deep, involved, and engrossing... it shows that no one, no matter how close they are to an event, knows EVERYTHING about it.Young Anton Steenwjik is the sole survivor of the brutal murder of his entire family by German troops, and the burning of his home in Occupied Holland. The troops did it as retribution for a killing of a collaborator carried out by the local Dutch Underground Resistance cell in front of the Steenwjik home. Anton was there and he saw it all... but it takes a 20 year odyssey that stretches across most of Northern Europe for him to learn the WHOLE truth about that night and it's horrendous events. Therein lies the tale. And it's a tale that's well worth watching.Even tho I promised spoilers in this, I will NOT give you the BIG one... the most unexpected and ironic "Gotcha" I've ever seen in a movie.A VERY HIGHLY recommended film! If you get the chance, SEE IT!_________________________________________________________________I'm updating my comments after the fact.I recently saw the videotape version of the movie, and found myself somewhat disappointed... nay, OUTRAGED... by it.In an attempt to trim the film to fit on standard length tape stock I suppose, the VHS videotape version makes a cut which for me is FATAL... they cut the entire end of Anton's chance meeting with Fake Ploog's son. That 30 second or so edit completely changes the feeling and meaning of the entire sequence, completely destroying the delicate balance that the director put into the theatrical release version.If anyone reads this who is involved with a possible future DVD release of THE ASSAULT... I beg of you... PLEASE... NO EDITING!!!This film is carefully put together like a fine watch. If you remove ANYTHING, it's not going to work right!!! ____________________________________________________________________

Boba_Fett1138 The Dutch are not great at making movies but when they make a WW II movie it often is a little masterpiece. "De Aanslag" is a movie like this."De Aanslag" isn't necessarily about WW II but more about the effects of it on a persons life and why things happen the way they do and how little things can effect a persons life for ever. Most of the movie's story is set in the years after WW II and uses flashbacks of things that happened in WW II to make more things clear and to show things from a different perspective from different individuals that were involved in the incident were the movie is about. It becomes more and more clear what happened at the night that collaborator Ploeg was killed but the Dutch resistance and more importantly why things happened the way it happened. The story also shows a detailed view of the Netherlands and their citizens the years and decades after WW II and how it still affected many.There are many great returning characters in the story and the acting is for especially Dutch standards pretty high. Derek de Lint who now is better know world wide for his role as Derek Rayne in "Poltergeist: The Legacy" is a great leading man that really carries the movie.The cinematography from Theo van de Sande who later did the cinematography for the movie hit "Blade" is great and sets a nice mood. The directing by Fons Rademakers is done wonderfully and it never makes the movie hard to follow even though at times it gets a bit complicated.Great Dutch Oscar winning drama with some memorable moments and a fantastic ending were everything comes together and gets clear.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/