The Heineken Kidnapping

This Dutch Import Has A Great True Story To Tell But Often Skimps On Details And Insight
If I'm being honest, "The Heineken Kidnapping" is one of the most frustrating films that I've endeavored to review in a very long time. This Dutch film by Maarten Treurniet has a fantastic true life story to draw from, but fails to provide much insight into the actual event even as it covers a lot of ground. Based in fact (although with the usual dramatic liberties), the film revolves around the 1983 case in which Freddy Heineken (yes, the brewing mogul) was abducted and held for ransom over a three week period. The culprits were low level, relatively inexperienced Amsterdam criminals who extracted millions for the industrialist only to be immediately ensnared in an International manhunt. Sounds like a great idea for a movie! And let me just say that "The Heineken Kidnapping" is an exceedingly well made and well acted movie. What frustrates me, however, is that its focus is so broad--you end up understanding very little about the actual incident. I don't feel as if the characters...

Sort of True Dutch Kidnap Thriller.
In 1983 Freddy Heineken head of the brewing giant that reaches the parts other beers just can not reach, was reached himself by a gang of petty criminals and along with his chauffer was kidnapped. They demanded a ransom of 35 million guilders. For those that know what happened to say anymore would be like saying of the film `Titanic' that it sank and there would be no surprises, but as I did not know an iota about this I will say no more of how it turned out.

The kidnappers were quite ruthless especially Rem as depicted in the film. It was his idea and he was the nastiest toward Mr Heinken, this is explained away as him blaming Mr Heineken for his father's alcoholism. His father having been a sales rep for twenty years for the company and saying there was an `unwritten law' that they had to drink with the punters - sounds like my ideal jib to be honest. Well Rem's father now runs a fancy dress shop but is slowly dying and Rem uses some of the wigs and stuff as disguises to...

(3.5 STARS) Based on True Event, But More Like Morality Tale Than Thriller
As the film's title suggests, "The Heineken Kidnapping" ("De Heineken Ontvoering") follows the story of a real-life kidnapping case of Alfred Henry (Freddy) Heineken in 1983, president (and grandson of the founder) of the namesake brewing company. Freddy and his chauffeur Ab Doderer were abducted by four masked men in front of the office and imprisoned for three weeks before they were finally released.

The Dutch film directed by Maarten Treurniet is short on detail about the kidnapping and its subsequent police investigation. The film pays more attention to the psychological aspects of those who were involved, especially Freddy Heineken (Rutger Hauer) and a young kidnapper Rem (Reinout Scholten van Aschat), whose father was formerly employed by the company Heineken. The story plays out more like a morality tale with characters, who, vulnerable in different ways, represent two opposite and contrasting social strata.

This is the strength and weakness of "The...

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