One of the important Netherlandish writers of the 19th century is Multatuli, he is primarily known in the Netherlands and abroad for one semi-autobiography he wrote about his time as local governor in a poor Indonesian province. During his government post he tried and failed to stop both Dutch and native oppression of the local population. Now Max Havelaar is not, a woke novel or film in any modern sense, progressive for it's time, but not woke. Let me explain, during this film, the blame is never placed purely at the feet of the Dutch, there is mismanagement and "racial slurs", but Multatuli wrote about a real place, with real problems and most of those problems are the results of the local nobility abusing their power. Now since no attempt was made in this film to soften this aspect of the novel, a large part of this film is just as much about the corruption within native cultures, as it is about the inept Dutch colonial government. The film also keeps close to the book in showing the "occupation" of Indonesia by the Dutch as one with a certain amount of mutual respect, between government officials and local rulers. Because of it's source material, this is one of those rare "colonial" films that are neither about "whitey bad" or about "great White conquerors", it is, what it was intended to be, a political manifesto in narrative form, for better government of the Dutch East-Indies. Now, what is the quality of this film? I seriously liked it, though I suspect for most people it is just too long and too boring, with the length of the film being just under 3 hours. Likewise to a non-Dutch person, some of the history and meaning behind the story gets lost. When I watch this film, I clearly recognize parts from the novel and after all these years, a lot of it has stayed on my mind, because I wrote a long essay about it in school and I reread it somewhere in my early 20's. Do I recommend this? Yes, for those looking for a smart film, something about history and about colonial rule that isn't just one sided and anti-White, I suggest you check it out, but keep in mind, it's slow and long.... The entire film in HD, with English subs: