Paul Verhoeven is a divisive and controversial filmmaker, known for employing excessive violence and hypersexuality in order to stylize his features, which often function as social satires. A native of Amsterdam, Verhoeven is active in the Netherlands, mainland Europe, and America. His first English-language movie is 1985’s Flesh + Blood, which stars his frequent collaborator Rutger Hauer.
Verhoeven is responsible for some of the most compelling science fiction films of the 1980s and 1990s, as well as many tense erotic dramas. His next feature, 2020’s Benedetta, is a biopic about two female nuns who fall in love with each other at their 17th-century Italian convent. Here are Paul Verhoeven’s 10 best movies to date, ranked according to IMDb.
Flesh + Blood (1985) - 6.7
Flesh + Blood takes place in 16th century Italy, following two warring mercenary groups attempting to gain control of the same region. Rutger Hauer plays a mercenary named Martin, who kidnaps his conning boss’s future daughter-in-law Agnes, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Agnes must placate her captor in order to keep herself safe while she watches him and his men wreak havoc on the Italian countryside. Unlike other heroic, fantastical stories, this film lacks the black and white moral framework many mainstream audiences crave.
Basic Instinct (1992) - 7.1
Verhoeven’s infamous erotic drama, Basic Instinct stars Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone. An homage to the artistic and sexually graphic European thrillers before it, Basic Instinct received a lot of negative press for its candid style, as well as for its reliance on the sex-crazed female trope.
In the movie, Douglas plays a detective trying to figure out who brutally murdered a rock star, and Sharon Stone’s character is his prime suspect. Despite this, the two engage in a self-destructive, lust-filled, cat-and-mouse affair.
Turkish Delight (1973) - 7.1
Another erotic thriller from Verhoeven, this Dutch-language feature stars a young Rutger Hauer as an artist known for his overtly carnal paintings and sculptures that often feature female figures. Hauer plays Eric, a womanizer who treats his lovers like sexual objects.
As the film progresses, audiences get more insight into Eric’s troubled psyche by being introduced to the only woman he ever loved: Olga, who happens to be dying from a brain tumor.
Elle (2016) - 7.1
This French-language revenge thriller stars actor Isabelle Huppert as a video game executive who is assaulted by a masked man. Instead of reporting the incident to the police, the executive, Elle, decides to track him down herself.
Due to the nature of the film, Verhoeven had a hard time finding an American actor to play the part of Elle. Eventually, he decided to ditch the US and made the move in France. He had to spend a considerable length of time before production learning French in order to communicate with the actors and crew. Elle went on to win a Golden Globe, multiple Cesar Awards, and special recognition at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.
The Fourth Man (1983) - 7.2
A good companion piece to Basic Instinct, Dutch actress Renee Soutendijk plays a femme fatale in The Fourth Man. Bloody and intense, the film borders on horror and is a prime example of the style that would polarize Americans watching Verhoeven’s English-language movies.
Soutendijk’s performance is matched by Gerard Reve’s as her bisexual lover and potential next victim. Steamy, vivid, and hallucinogenic, The Fourth Man disavows hetereonormative relationships and revels in queer excess.
Starship Troopers (1997) - 7.2
One of the most underrated science fiction satires of the 1990s, Starship Troopers is a big-budget anti-war movie featuring giant, slimy intergalactic bugs. Casper Van Dien stars as Johnny Rico, a young soldier in the futurist Mobile Infantry tasked with participating in the ongoing war against the Arachnids, an alien species wreaking havoc on the universe.
Loosely based on a Robert Heinlein book, Starship Troopers was hated by critics upon release. Despite this, it earned an Oscar nomination for Best Special Effects and has since become a cult classic.
RoboCop (1987) - 7.5
Verhoeven’s most famous science fiction venture is this dystopian cop drama set in Detroit, Michigan. After he’s killed in the line of duty, a policeman played by Peter Weller is resurrected as a humanoid robot commissioned by the local police department to be an indestructible crime-fighting machine.
This was Verhoeven’s English-language breakthrough, establishing his status as a savage and uncompromising satirist. Even with its bleak and depressing message, RoboCop was a theatrical and critical success, winning numerous awards.
Total Recall (1990) - 7.5
Verhoeven matches fast-paced action sequences with thought-provoking speculative scenarios in this compelling feature starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. At the time it was made, Total Recall was one of the most expensive films ever produced, employing state-of-the-art special effects and visually stunning progressions.
Based on the Philip K. Dick short story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale,” the movie follows Schwarzenegger’s character as he travels to Mars, where he is implicated in an espionage plot. Reality and fantasy become blurred as he realizes the events unfolding around him are premediated and designed to manipulate his sense of materiality.
Soldier Of Orange (1977) - 7.7
This World War II drama explores what happens to a group of young Dutch students after the Nazis invade Holland. Rutger Hauer stars as Erik, who flees to England with his friend Gus in order to participate in a burgeoning underground resistance movement.
Edgy and powerful, the narrative prowess of Soldier of Orange made Verhoeven a name on the international circuit, leading to his eventual transition into the American film industry.
Black Book (2006) - 7.7
Black Book signifies Verhoeven’s first return to Dutch-language movies after 1983’s The Fourth Man. Another film focusing on the Nazi invasion of Holland during World War II, this feature stars Carice van Houten as a beautiful Jewish woman named Rachel whose family is slaughtered by German troops after being promised safe transfer to Belgium.
Rachel dyes her hair blonde in order to pass as an Aryan woman while secretly working with the local resistance movement, gaining access to high-level Nazis by posing as a sex worker in hopes of bringing them down from the inside.
