The Gang of Oss (2011) User Reviews

A beautifully made film, but a little lengthy.

[eleanorlbaker · 6/10 · 9 October 2011]

The first thing you notice about the film is just how beautifully made it is. Everything from the costume, set, acting, and the general atmosphere of the film is excellent. Very good attention to detail.

The story is interesting and although it is based on a true story, still full of the unexpected and is very original.

My biggest problem with this film is the length and tempo of it. It is a long film and although I appreciate that they would want to stay true to the story but that causes the film to drag in places and feels very slow. And it is very easy to loose interest and difficult to keep your attention on the film in places.

A nice film with an interesting story line.

No Robin Hood romanticism in Oss

[frankde-jong · 6/10 · 4 February 2022]

"The gang of Oss" is a Dutch gangstermovie, a very rare genre. It is based, for the greatest part, on the real gang of Oss. Lead character Johanna van Heesch (Sylvia Hoeks) is based on Janske van Uden.

Johanna resembles Marie in Chabrols "Une affaire de femmes" (1988). She has to survive in a tough environment and wants to start a new and cleaner live. In order to realise this all means (including some violent ones) are justified and she don't hesitate to manipulate two men who she knows are in love with her.

Sylvia Hoeks convinces as the bar owner who's husband is in jail and who serves hier clients not only liquor but also paid love. In the first half of the movie (too) much emphasis is laid on the last mentioned extra income. One can see this as sensationalism. On the other hand it explains the reason why some men are so fond of her that they are susceptible for the manipulation that plays an important role in the second half of the movie.

Fortunately the film stays away from false Robin Hood like romanticism. There is no social goal behind the crimes of the gang, but only self-enrichment. You can also taste a touch of cynicism when the investigation against the gang is put on hold when too many dignitaries appear to have ties with the gang.

The city of Oss is in the South of the Netherlands. This part of the country is mainly Roman Catholic. The North of the Netherlands is largely Protestant. The locals treated the military police from the North, investigating the gang of Oss, as some sort of occupying force and remained silent. It resembles a sort of "omerta". If the source of this "omerta" is fear for retallation, I can understand. If the source is hositilty towards the Protestants from the North (as the movie suggests), I find it hard to believe. After all the members, and especially the more senior members, of the gang had (as remarked earlier) no social purposes in mind and didn't hesitate to sacrifice some of the locals if this was in their interest.

The best historical movie I've seen lately in Holland!

[Vladimir-mars · 16 October 2011]

This movie gives an excellent idea of how life in a criminal gang was - in a small city in the Dutch outback (Oss, North-Brabant) in the 1930's. How the gang, with the help of the Roman Church and factory-owners, could flourish in a mental climate of hatred against the national government and it's military police ('marechaussee'). 'We from Oss', catholic southerners, speaking a different dialect against 'Them' - the Dutch occupiers, mostly protestants who speak 'high' dutch and who use the marechaussee to keep the Oss'ians down under.

It's an honest film which tries to follow history more or less precise. By placing one member of the gang in the middle of the story (a woman, bar-owner and prostitute) it personalizes this history. The way she is portrayed in her attempt to get rid of the gang life and flee with one of her lovers is convincing and phenomenal! In the beginning she is only shrewd" an opportunist, only out for the money and for her own survival. But later on we see that she does care and she does have a morale, a conscience. It;s not black and white. And therefore - and for the fine actors, good dialogs and historical props - it's an excellent film in my opinion.

Historical Portrait of dark period

[D_vd_B · 8/10 · 24 February 2012]

Oss is a city with a violent past, a city which has seen numerous changes both on industrial, criminal and civilized levels. These changes were seen all over the Netherlands, but for that period of time no example was so striking or extreme like it was in Oss.

André van Duren is a case of good Dutch film-maker which has lots of quality and not too much work. He has proved his skill with historical portraits in the past and De Bende van Oss is one of the few successful attempt to portray the region of Oss in that period. Cleverly shot in Ravenstein, Herpen, Keent and Oss itself, with the exception of some studio work, all feels quite authentic.

The cast is mostly put together from Brabanders (the province in which Oss lies) and this works well enough. Of course, they cannot speak with the right dialect for the film should be understood all over the Netherlands, but that doesn't bother much. The acting balanced between realistic and over the top.

This is the case with the entire film. It's brought with realism but there are many grotesque elements present. Somehow the film manages to find a delicate balance between those two. The soundtrack by Paleis van Boem works nice and gives it a special touch.

There are some problems with the film, like the gangleader is the least scary and convincing of the entire gang and he is more clown than Capone at times (not in a good way) but the rest of the cast carries him well enough so you won't really be bothered by it.

This film did cost about 3,5 mil euros which is a large budget for the Netherlands. If you think they transformed and built a convincing world with that money on par with 50+ mil Hollywood productions I can't help to wonder how we in our humble country manage to do it sometimes.

A good film, sometimes a little unsolid and at times plain great with many human touches, this is a film of which the Dutch people can be proud and will largely entertain themselves with.

De bende van Oss great historical drama documentary

[rbfokker · 22 November 2011]

De bende van Oss provides a convincing historical image of a dark period influenced by the obscene marriage of capitalism and catholicism in the southern part of the Netherlands during the thirties of the 20th century, concentrated in a small town by the name of Oss. De bende means 'the gang' but has another meaning as well: terrible disorder, filth, dirt. Exploitation of workers, bribe, blackmail, rape and murder became a hopeless daily routine and in the end 'de bende' even reached the Dutch Government at the time. The daring and wonderfully detailed script is based on a mosaic of true stories, gathered from a longer period of time: from the late 19th century up to WW II in which the industrialization in Oss took place. As the police from the north of the Netherlands comes in to restore law and order, a young woman - Jean Harlow blond Sylvia Hoeks can play effortless all the necessary looks - tries to escape from her fate as a whore and from the filth that surrounds her and her family, deeply involved in crime as well. In the end she succeeds, but she - as Godmother Maria, dressed in a blue blanket - has to pay a high price. After an amazing shoot out that reminds the spectator of High Noon, she manages - with many others - to flee on a steamer bound for the United States - just before WW II breaks out - to start a new life. De bende van Oss is a unique movie because of the documentary structured base which turns the dramatic story into a true story, instead of the other way around, thanks to the highly intelligent script, written by director André van Duren en Paul Jan Nelissen.

Richard Fokker / Hoogland / the Netherlands / 2011-11-22 / Scriptwriter / art historian.

For a Dutch movie it's really nice

[breintjedelaperlovici · 9/10 · 19 October 2020]

Dutch movie makers are the worst in the world. Only bollywood movies sucks more. So it surprised me that this movie was pretty good. Also I live nearby Oss, and it's true, they all have knifes. Maybe they think the Germans will give it a third chance and they wanna be prepared. You never know.

Quite enjoyable movie, but historically maybe about 5-10% correct.

[merefl · 17 March 2012]

When I first read about this movie I was pleasantly surprised. Making a movie about Oss in the Netherlands depicting the problems (crime, poverty) in the 1930's. I read a lot about what happened in that period. Moreover my grandfather was a member of the Marechaussee in Oss in those days. He was – to say the least – responsible for the arrest of a lot of those criminals in that period. That's why I have to say, that this movie doesn't give an accurate picture of the situation in that period. Not at all to be honest. There are a couple of persons (whose names are different in the movie of course) who really existed in those days and have committed the crimes that you can see in the movie. But apart from that the movie isn't historically correct. Well, that doesn't have to be a problem of course, since most of the viewers know nothing of what happened during those days in and around Oss. So it doesn't bother me really. What does bother me really very much is the fact that in the end of the movie people can read on the screen that many of the Marechaussee members joined the NSB (a pro Nazi movement in Holland in those days). That is absolutely not true. There may have been a few, but most of them joined the underground resistance, who helped American and British pilots to escape from the Germans). In my opinion the movie makers should have been more careful in making such a statement. Apart from that it is not a bad movie. The settings are OK as well as the clothing, the speech (dialect the people speak). The movie depicts the atmosphere of life in those days in a Dutch small city. All in all a nice movie to watch on a rainy afternoon. But keep in mind that the link to the real situation in those days isn't really present in the movie (well maybe for about 5%).

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

[hnapel · 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.