This article discusses the ending of the Netflix film The Forgotten Battle and will contain spoilers.
Ready Steady Cut Film Critic, M.N. Miller, said The Forgotten Battle is a “Gripping war picture.”
By the time Janna (Marthe Schneider) washes up on the Antwerp shore with a much-needed map in her purse, the Allied forces had taken a significant hit in their first attack on Scheldt. The map showed a safe passage behind German Axis lines. Holding the line for the Germans is Marinus (Gijs Blom), who was forced into action after helping Teuntje locate her brother. Sneaking up behind with the Allies is William (Jamie Flatters).
When the Allied, predominantly Canadian forces finally secure the seaway that will open up at the end of World War II, William gets separated from his unit. Meanwhile, Marinus begins to walk back to his Nazi base. They cross paths in the flooded field. Marinus holds a gun to his cheek, showing signs of shell shock, letting his Luger slowly descend. William immediately ascends his rifle at a 90-degree angle into Marinus’s chest. He lowers his weapon, and they both walk away with their lives in their hands.
Netflix film The Forgotten Battle ending explained
When Teuntje pushes the boat with Janna laying in it, a bullet wound in her shoulder and the map in her hands, she is taken into custody as a prisoner of war by Axis soldiers. With the Germans fleeing, a Nazi soldier decides to take his spoils from Teuntje. Marinus grabs him from behind as she screams and stabs the soldier in the stomach, but not before he gets a shot off, right into Marinus’s stomach.
As Teuntje cries over him as the life slowly drains from his eyes, William watches from a distance. He is puzzled why a local girl would mourn a man who killed her brother. Does he begin to wonder why she is so upset with the death of someone who represented her oppression? Of course. He may even think, what was the fight for, then? He walks away and looks over a city that lost 11,000 lives consisting of Antwerp citizens and Allied and Axis forces.
The ending of The Forgotten Battle represents the spoils of war. Teuntje and Marinus, in a different time, would have made a perfect couple. Knowing he may have saved the world from annihilation, William learns that war caused division when enemies were friends and communication failed. It’s all just a fallacy.
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