In 1994 filmmaker Jonathan Blank released Sex, Drugs & Democracy, a nonfiction ringing endorsement for the modern Netherlands way of life. Holland's liberal-socialist attitudes towards government medical care, drug legalization, and prostitution were elements that American conservatism derides as ushering hell on Earth. Yet in the Dutch experience, these have resulted (as per Blank) in a very nearly Utopian, contented, and inclusive society.
Here Blank updates his premise—and newer digital-filmmaking technology now helps punch up his op-ed with playful CGI animation (not unlike what Terry Gilliam hand-wrought for Monty Python, but Dutch-centric). And, for Amsterdam's legalized prostitutes, that degrading Reeperbahn stuff with ladies on display in windows, is now discreetly online instead.
But Blank also has a somewhat wider, more nuanced, and hindsight-informed scope to his Dutch-colored glasses, resulting in a somewhat better movie (the earlier film tended to sell Holland the same way TV pitchman endorsed gadgets that sliced your veggies 17 ways).
Key to the thesis is the "happiness" indices kept by pollsters. Dutch children are described as the happiest and most well-adjusted in the world. So are Dutch adults, a fact they seldom acknowledge or brag, even among themselves. Yes, there are street protests in the Netherlands (especially lately), but the overall quality of life is good. The USA scores sometimes shamefully lower in most comparison.
Significant ingredients of Dutch positivity are defined as "Gezellig"—a sort of cooperative striving for happiness in collective, cozy form, and "Poldermodel," a constructive mode of group decision making. Poldermodel allegedly arose out of a diversity of people—Catholics, Protestants, Jews—having to contend all together with the famed floods that afflicted the Benelux lowlands.
Blank does find a nay-sayer (from an animal-rights political party) who complains that Poldermodel's accommodating of the meat industry keeps Holland from better fighting climate change. And, in a Black-Lives-Matter interlude, the Dutch are faulted for failure to fully acknowledge slavery and racism in their history. One supposes American right-wingers, facing inconvenient truths of Dutch success, can always fault the extremism of "woke" mindsets when even ultra-liberal Netherlands fails a PC test.
Meanwhile back in Holland, nativist/reactionary politicians enthusiastically embrace gay rights—they know it offends the Muslim immigrants they oppose. Yes, homophobic attacks occur, often in the name of Islam (though a transgender streetwalker says that Muslims comprise the majority of her clients).
Blank once again praises Dutch models of healthcare, sex education, drug tolerance, and "social democracy" (free markets, with a government helping hand when needed, as opposed to dog-eat-dog predatory capitalism). Perhaps the one thing widely derided: the Dutch language. Transatlantic comedian Greg Shapiro, a sort of ambassador of Netherlands culture, says the language "makes my mouth feel ugly." Almost everyone here speaks English, with subtitles kept to a minimum.
Collections should note nudity, profanity, and frank sex talk (Dutch media knows very little censorship). A few generations ago this material could have provided fodder for an exploitive "mondo" documentary—"Shocking Amsterdam" perhaps. Today it looks more like a prescription and panacea. Recommended. Aud: C, P.