Red and White – review

The first of a projected historical trilogy and reportedly the most expensive film in Indonesian history, this is an old-fashioned war movie about its struggle for an independent identity – co-written and produced by American father-and-son duo Rob and Conor Allyn. This first film is set in the period just after the second world war, when Indonesia declared independence but then faced reinvasion from the Dutch forces, eager to reclaim their former imperial possession. Volunteers for the Indonesian army are guys from different classes and walks of life, who quarrel among themselves but bond, stout-heartedly, in the face of enemy aggression. When their unit is all but wiped out by a Dutch attack, the survivors form into a defiant guerrilla band: a sort of Clean Dozen or Glourious Non-Basterd group who carry in their hearts the spirit of Indonesian pride. It's the sort of film that could have been made 40 years ago in Hollywood, with plenty of uniformed extras doing some very ripe "being shot dead" acting as they fall off tanks. Not too bad, though a little plodding. It isn't clear how, or if, the trilogy will dramatise Indonesia's own controversial invasion of East Timor in 1975.