Ultimately, the bewigged Stallone wins the battle (largely because Wulfgar brought a knife to a gunfight), but thanks to his sterling performance, Hauer won the war – Nighthawks wasn’t a big hit, and it hasn’t exactly aged well, as its repeat showings on UK TV stations will prove, but Hauer’s performance is, as ever, never less than brilliant. Hauer’s towering villainy is such that Stallone’s character has to stoop to some rather embarrassing tactics to defeat him in a tense conclusion, Stallone’s character disguises himself as his wife (complete with blonde wig) in order to lure Wulfgar into his house. Sylvester Stallone and Billy Dee Williams (who was just killing time before he flew off to blow up the Death Star, presumably) are the superhero cops on Wulfgar’s tail in a story that was originally written as a sequel to The French Connection. Given that so many of Hauer’s later appearances would be in movies of an action, sci-fi or fantasy persuasion, it’s worth revisiting this early entry in his acting history, in a straight dramatic role where villainy or outright heroism are absent.Ī year before Blade Runner immortalised Hauer as cinema’s most poetic replicant, he made his US debut as the sociopathic terrorist Wulfgar in the thriller Nighthawks. It was the most expensive film in Dutch history at the time, and it shows – Soldier Of Orange’s depiction of a country in the midst of war is depicted with convincing detail and the same gripping pace Verhoeven would later bring to his output in Hollywood. Excellently shot by Verhoeven’s frequent collaborator Jost Vacano, Soldier Of Orange is the perfect showcase for Verhoeven as a dramatic filmmaker, and Hauer’s talents as an actor. Hauer played Erik, one of four students whose paths diverge as the war rages on – while his friends’ fates vary, Erik embarks on various affairs and fights on the side of the Resistance. Their best collaboration, though, had to be the 1977 war movie Soldier Of Orange, about the German invasion of the Netherlands in the Second World War. Before director Paul Verhoeven and Rutger Hauer embarked on successful filmmaking careers in the US, the pair made a number of Dutch movies together, including Turkish Delight and Spetters.
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