Black Book

Simply mentioning that you’re off to see a Paul Verhoeven film is enough to polarize opinions in a room full of film buffs. Though the Dutch director has significant critical acclaim in his country of origin, his more recent work in the United States has firmly entrenched his work in the little-thinking, lots of explosions ‘action’ genre. So does the director of RoboCop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Starship Troopers and The Hollow Man have anything significant to say?

Black Book would seem to suggest that it is possible for directors as well as actors to reinvent themselves. Verhoeven’s latest production delves deeply into the self-centredness in the hearts of the conquerors and the conquered alike. This historically based tale is an anodyne to the rosy glow we give to our own causes and a solid argument for the Biblical justice that exceeds humanity’s reach.

The Dutch World War II story cuts across the usual stereotypes of bad Nazis and brave resistance fighters. It is a collage of real characters and events, telling the story of a famous singer and Jewess who is driven into hiding by the betrayal and profiteering of her countrymen. Rachel Stein (Carice Van Houten) embraces an opportunity to take the battle to the German occupiers by joining the Dutch Resistance, but she soon discovers that war is a dirty business that marks all involved. Rachel herself is not immune, discovering that playing the part of a Nazi’s lover can create the sort of personal confusion that is likely to get her killed by both sides.

Black Book is named after a small diary that purports to contain the names of Nazi collaborators and their equally dark deeds. Through it Verhoeven unveils the unpleasant truth that it is far easier to act cruelly than justly. The portrayal of atrocities under the Nazi regime is finely counterbalanced by the deeply disturbing acts carried out by the victorious Dutch. Rachel seems as much in danger in post-war Holland as she was under the Nazis. When the mob perceives her as a collaborator the heroine is subjected to some of the most disgusting (but factually accurate) abuses by a vengeful public. Some might say that there is no hole deep enough for the perpetrators of German war crimes, but Verhoeven’s film neatly illustrates that our worst actions are often only prevented by a lack of opportunity. There are many on both sides of this conflict who erroneously laid hold of victory as the ultimate justification.

Black Book is a subtitled film and so may be dropped into the ‘too hard’ basket by the average film-goer, but it has a moral that would be well worth learning. You cannot watch the German SS engaging in disturbing torture sequences without reflecting that the same techniques are even now being employed by Western powers to terror suspects. To the opposing power, every civilian combatant is a terrorist and any methodology can be justified in the name of ‘saving lives’. But the brutal techniques employed reduce the inquisitor as well as his victim so slowly we find ourselves standing on the same footing as some of the most reviled figures in history. It is a thought that should make us think beyond economic comfort as we approach elections, lest our silence make us complicit.

Sin is everywhere apparent in Black Book, as is the concept of an inevitable judgment. Many who have had the upper hand throughout the film consider the approaching Liberation by the Allies as a fearful event rather than something to be anticipated. There is a sense that one day all deeds will be accounted for, though it is an imperfect accounting as far as the characters are concerned with a few of the most conscienceless using technicalities and their wiles to escape. Verhoeven’s characters instinctively realize that the guilty deserved to be cast out from all forms of society, though their means of separating the good and the bad is seriously impaired. However the film underlines the universal longing for judgment which is given its fullest realization in Christianity. God’s promise is that His findings will be based on the evidence of our own hearts, though mercy will be offered to even the darkest souls who apply, so long as they do so before His court comes to session. As Jesus warned his seemingly righteous contemporaries,

“As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled to him on the way, or he may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.” (Luke 12:58-59, NIV)

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