Red & White Review

Calling on Indonesians to remember the spirit of ’47, when after the Japanese retreat they were re-invaded by the Dutch trying to muscle their way back onto the archipelago, seems noble for a nation still ravaged by corruption and violence, but no amount of good intentions can make this film better. Yadi Sugandi is happy for Conor and Rob Allyn’s script (every Allied World War II movie cliché) to play at John Woo levels of soap operatics (sister/potential love interest staggering about in a firefight included), with clunky exposition and 1D Dutch baddies. Hopefully we’ll one day see the much more interesting story of what happened after the dastardly Orange eventually buggered off.