Very disappointing...

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

It took a while for me to see this flick, and I was already weary after seeing the publicity stills, but it was much worse than I expected. I cannot believe it is being rated as high as it is. The director, Steven De Jong, directed a lot of children's films and it shows. The movie contains some of the worst acting in The Netherlands, which is a pity because there are actually some decent actors involved. The score is awful, pompous and would better fit Gladiator. The film is full of clichés, expect one every five minutes. Anachronisms occur throughout the movie: Holland did not look like this in 1963 (I was there!) and one of the main characters has a eighties hairdo. And on top of it all, the fake snow they sprayed on everyone, oh my God!! Don't bother watching it, it will save you a lot of frustration. If you're in for a laugh, buy it!

This movie is absolutely dreadful in many ways !!a) As a movie of any kind, about any place, and about any event. (script , acting, plot, direction, etc – all are very, very poor indeed)b) an a "faction" account of a historical event (compare : depict concentration camps as holiday resorts and you get the idea.)c) as an alleged representation of a real country (a province) in 1963 (the date of the event). Go to Disney Land or another fantasy and be disappointed when seeing the real thing.If you see a commercial made by a local tourist bureau you expect that many things are made a bit "rosy" and more attractive than when you get there. Indeed, the scenes of the villages etc. are lovely …….. and false. AND INDEED, by golly, the local provincial governments (i.e. the taxpayers) DID put a lot of money in this movie. Yes, I am Dutch. Yes, I remember the winter of 1963. Yes, I myself skated on that day – although my "endurance" was a far cry from the participants of this 200 kilometers competition AND (simultaneous) "recreational" skaters. (Just a statistic: 9.862 people started, i.e. participated – 127 made it to the finish.)

I do not understand how some people can classify this a masterpiece. It's junk: the storyline(s), the dialogs, the editing, the year 1963 is not accurately portrayed.Some examples: One of the (young) female actors escapes by faking that she is an doctor of medicine. In 1963 female doctors were very rare. The girl is about 20/22 years of ages, but she is taken seriously in her profession.The automobiles in the movie have YELLOW license plates, which were not introduced in the Netherlands before the early '80. The plates in 1963 were BLUE. The movie makers did feel the urge to take a simple screwdriver to fix the accurate plates. It tells you something about the amount of effort the movie makers are willing to put in their masterpiece.Then there is the story, which is an assembly of 4 stories, portrayed by 4 individuals that meet on the ice (3 men and 1 woman). They all have the same goal: to finish the race. Good idea, but it does not work. There are some unnecessary sidelines that distract from the main story lines. As a viewer you are hopping between the 4 story lines without feeling the intended emotions. The music is rather good. It could have taken me if there was anything to cling to.The dialogs do not fit in the year 1963. The sentences are full of 21th-century-vocabulairy. People talked and behaved differently in 1963. The movie makers never seem to bother. So, the feeling of being in the 60ties did never hit me.The accidents on the ice are disappointing. Some scenes in the movie are just tasteless. One of the main characters gets very hungry on the ice and starts hallucinating. The visualization of this looks like a poorly made you tube clip.Some of the special effects were nice. The cold weather is visualized by wolves that run through the clouds. They seem to be edited randomly and do not come to their full potential, but it looked nice. The ice, snow and wind are well done, also.Overall, I am disappointed. A monumental ice race, like the Elfstedentocht, deserves more respect than this.

I went to this movie not expecting too much and having read a review that only gave it two of five stars. Thus I was pleasantly surprised to see what a good movie Steven de Jong made of the events took place on this day in 1963 when 10.000 people started an ice-skating tour that only 69 of the tourskaters would bring to an end. The story brings four people together that have different reasons for taking part in the tour. The stories are nicely brought together. We also get a good feel of how harsh this tour was. The cinematography is on a high level and the music is great. Also good to see that a main part is spoken in Frisian as this event takes place in Friesland. I would recommend this to anyone who like to see a realistic fight for survival on the ice that brings people together in such a way that only the 11-cities tour can.