Spetters - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Spetters or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Spetters

[veronica]

Paul Verhoeven: [religious imagery] In one scene, a character is shot from a low angle, with a light bulb creating a halo around his head (c.f. Flesh+Blood (1985)).

[maureen]

In the barfight scene, you can see a glass of beer is thrown at the back of the head of Eef (Toon Achterberg). It was director Paul Verhoeven throwing it at him, and Agterberg was injured and needed stitches after this scene was done.

[ray]

This is the first movie Paul Verhoeven made that was not an adaptation of a novel.

[ava]

The subway tunnel where the rape of Eef was filmed was not a set, but a genuine tunnel under construction. The professional guards who protected the place had to be lured away in order to shoot the scene.

[tammy]

This movie was heavily criticized in The Netherlands. Many critics accused this movie of being anti-women, anti-gay, anti-invalid, and anti-Chistian. They also called it devoid of morals and needlessly decadent. This criticism was one of the contributing factors in director Paul Verhoeven's decision to begin making movies in America rather than his native land. In fact, on the movie's commentary track, Verhoeven states that the reason he was not fazed by the negative criticism of Showgirls (1995) was because he'd already been through it with Spetters (1980).

[norma]

In the beginning of the 1980s, Paul Verhoeven's Dutch movies had come to the attention of Kathleen Kennedy, who showed them to her business partner Steven Spielberg. Spielberg was hugely impressed with Soldier of Orange (1977) and even considered recommending Verhoeven to his friend George Lucas as a potential director for Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983). However, he changed his mind after seeing this sexually explicit movie.

[maureen]

Paul Verhoeven had originally intended to make Rien's death very gruesome. The scene would have gone as far as showing paramedics removing parts of his body from the truck's tires, but Verhoeven reconsidered after negative response from his crew.

[brent]

Was originally titled "Buddies", before Paul Verhoeven's wife suggested the title change.

[violet]

The pinball machine wrecked in the café is a "Dancing Lady" electro-mechanical machine made by D. Gottlieb & Co in 1966.

[jessie]

The suits worn by the three protagonists during motocross racing reflect their nature: Rien, the most talented and valiant of the three, is dressed in white; Eef, the ambivalent one, is two-colored (red and black); and Hans, the fool and coward, wears yellow.

[claude]

The first version of the screenplay was rejected by a Dutch movie foundation for being too vulgar. The script was re-written and funding was obtained, but in reality, Paul Verhoeven simply used the original screenplay as the shooting script.

[chris]

Paul Verhoeven showed up "in character" on the set and later in a Dutch television show (Sonja Barend), by wearing a leather jacket and greased hair.