Movie Review: ‘Sportman van de Eeuw’

When it comes to movies, I always like European ones better than Hollywood’s. The reason is simple. I’m more interested on good stories than special effects. So movies with generic and predictable endings often times don’t make it into my list. Unless it is based on my favorite books. Recently, the government here decided to raise the tax of movie distribution in the country. It will most likely put all distribution of Hollywood movies here into a halt. It didn’t bother me much as long as I can still see European movies at the festivals or cultural centers here. Having said all that, I decided to share some reviews of the European movies I’ve seen so far. Let me begin with a Dutch movie I saw in February 2008.

 

It is called ‘Sportman van de Eeuw’.

 

Before I share my review, here is the synopsis followed by its trailer on YouTube:
It tells the story of Taeke Jongsma who, throughout his life, has been offered a series of stark choices. So many times he has been on the verge of fame, about to become a legend, about to break the pole-sitting endurance record. But every time, just as his legendary status is as good as assured, he comes down to help the girl he loves.

 

 

The movie was a flashback. It started and ended with a scene of a committee consists of six people who had the authority to choose the Sportsman of the 20th Century in Friesland . One of them was a man named Sake who knew Taeke Jongsma (the main character of the movie) since he was young. Sake suggested the committee to give Taeke the honorable title.

 

The sport was pole-sitting (yeah, I laughed about it too!). The ‘athlete’ sat on a pole that stood in a lake for not only hours nor days but MONTHS. While the real modern day person who broke the record of pole-sitting in 2002 got a 10 minutes break every 2 hours, the ones in the story of this movie stayed on the poles for as long as they could.

 

 

They didn’t take a bath and did all their “businesses” (poo, pee, sex, etc) right on the poles! Their families or significant others came by boat to bring food several times a day, books to read and umbrellas for the rainy days – so did the postman for their mails. The winner was the one who could sit on that pole in the longest time and break the record of more than 250 DAYS.

 

So the story was all about winning the game AND breaking the previous record with an extra “love” competition between Taeke – who was poor – and a man named Rintje who didn’t have to participate on a pole-sitting record breaking since he was from a very rich family – the richest family in their area. Both men were in love with the same lady.

 

 

There were so many things to find out in this movie: Did Taeke break the record? Did he win the competition for the love of his life? Did he get the ‘Sportman of the Century’ title? The end of the movie was quite unpredictable, I was caught by surprise. It got me thinking about life and what I want to achieve in it. My answer is simple.

 

I just want to be happy.

 

How about you?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PS: A re-post from my blog on Multiply. Picture of the movie #1 was copied from the net and #2 was scanned from the postcard given at Erasmus Huis – Jakarta.

 

 

 

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