hnapel Review of The Gang of Oss

The Gang of Oss (2011)

Moderately interesting if only Sylvia Hoeks had not saved the day.

[8/10 · 5 February 2020]

The structure of the movie, as also confirmed by the director is that the whole gruesome plot with all its killings, prostitution and arson in the prewar Dutch town of Oss is centered around the main character Johanna played by Sylvia Hoeks who both forms the anchor and focus point of the story. While based on true events some artistic liberty was taken and the scenario as presented is an amalgam of things that really happened but not necessarily in that order or time-frame. The Gang of Oss was a loosely organized band of misfits specializing in theft, insurance fraud, murder and arson, it has also been regarded as a result of dire poverty in the area and the struggle of the rural populace to fit in the upcoming discipline of industrialized factory work. The government tries to bring the town under control by dispatching a contingent of military police, thus setting the stage for violent developments with key stakeholders gathering in the cafe where Johanna doubles as downstairs waitress and upstairs prostitute. When her husband whom she loved at first, even if he just bailed out of jail becomes abusive a sinister plan comes up to kill him while trying to fetch the money on his life insurance. This killing is both extrajudicial considering the stated law as well as the unwritten law of the local gang leader that no such thing should happen without his permission. This gang leader has enough worries already since after a big-wig MP was killed the up-scaled police force tries to break open the code of silence to finally crackdown on all the gang members. When the gang leader, while trying to frame the MP murder on the guy that did Johanna's husband is getting a tad too cruel in conspiring with the towns notables in a sex ring to which her sister falls victim Johanna finds the means and courage to kill him. She escapes justice only because at that time, just before as in hindsight the Nazi's are going to invade the lowlands and for political reasons the military police are withdrawn from the area and she is able to miraculously escape on a boat to America. Sylvia Hoeks as always does not disappoint, for the Dutch audience even presenting an elevated authenticity because she is so well versed in the local accent from the same area she was actually born. The camera loves her and she is in almost every scene. For some reason Dutch filmmakers think that if a movie concerns a time in which color movies still had to be invented they also need to dial down the color saturation to give the film a more authentic look and which in this case resulted in a somewhat pale appearance of Sylvia, besides to a lesser extent of irritation all the other characters and throngs of extra's that lined up for this movie. Also when the Dutch make a movie with what they consider a big budget, they elevate its epic status by sheer duration even if it was not a punishment to explore this earlier work of Sylvia Hoeks, who later just like her alter ego Johanna made it big in America. So while for a local audience the story is interesting for its historic context internationally that may not mean much and the film should be interesting on its own merit besides digging up some historical dirt on a town that most people would never even have heard of and in that respect it would only have been moderately interesting if Sylvia had not saved the day.