Many of de Ruyter’s deeds circulating today come from the biography written by the Dutch poet playwright Gerard Brandt at the invitation of de Ruyter’s son. However, many of the contents are considered literary creations by historians, such as the "King" before the death of the old Tromp and his family. After being attacked by a mob, he dropped the sailor who had attacked de Witt off the boat. But the movies are all accepted as orders. In this regard, it is comparable to the self-reported account of Yi Sun-sin in "Mingliang".
The biggest historical problem of the movie is that the death of de Ruyter is attributed to Prince of Orange, which is purely to blame for Orange. In fact, after the Anglo-Dutch armistice, the French-Dutch war continued, and the French fleet withdrew from the North Sea. De Ruyter first carried out an unsuccessful attack on the West Indies in France, and then moved to the Mediterranean at the invitation of the Spaniards. The Spanish fleet and the Dutch fleet are as powerful as the French national flag, and there is no conspiracy to put William to death. Of course, part of his death was due to the cowardice of the Spaniard, and partly due to luck.
Britain is purely a soy sauce role in this film, which is not fair to the Royal Navy, which was at the peak of its combat effectiveness in the 17th century. All the naval masters used a Monck instead of the past. Wouldn't it be more dramatic if the Duke of York, the younger brother of Charles II, and the future King James II, and the protagonist played against each other? Before the Third Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch had basically never won the British army even if they were evenly matched. It could have been a step up from "unwin-tie-win", which also reflects the greatness of the protagonist in transforming the navy, but the result is quite inexplicable. It seems that the protagonist has different talents, as long as the little Tromp cooperates. From victory to victory.
The performance of several naval battles was really rough. Known as the "greatest naval battle of the Sailing Age", the four-day naval battle was completed with a few maneuvers (it should be an interspersed maneuver on the second day), and the French army inexplicably ran aground in the penultimate naval battle, obviously. The situation of the French fighting in West India in 1674 was moved to the Battle of Tessel. This may be a problem that the naval battles of that era were difficult to be accepted by modern fast-paced aesthetics. The filming of this film uses a lot of antique sailing ships, but unfortunately most of them are merchant ships. It was just those ships that were shot and shot, and the details of the battleship appeared immediately. Also limited by budget, it is impossible to use CG on a large scale-the only features with CG feature are the protagonist's flagship "Seven Provinces" and the captured "Royal Charlie". Seeing a merchant ship without a muzzle posing as a British and French flagship is always unpleasant.
Of course, this is all the nitpicking of a sailing party and history lover. Although a "Furious Sea" is perfect, it obviously didn't make commercial profits; and for magnificent themes like de Ruyter's biography, it would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to realize historical truth. It is extremely worthy of recognition that the director has a lot of skill in scene management. Many distant shots clearly pay tribute to the 17th century Dutch prints and the Flemish school of ship paintings. It is extremely enjoyable and moved inexplicably when I first saw it. In general, although this film is not a niche work like "Furious Sea Fighting", it is already very satisfying under the current market conditions.
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