Director Roel Reiné (center, wearing a hat) with cast and crew members at the film set in 2014
The first choice for the title role was Yorick van Wageningen, but he could not come to a financial agreement with the producers.[5] On 9 May 2014, the full cast was presented to the press.[6]
Prior to its release, several protest groups had accused the film of glorifying the colonial history of the Netherlands[2] although references to colonialism in the film are almost absent. The film makes a minor reference to the Dutch East India Company, which contributed highly to the welfare of a small group of wealthy merchants in the 17th century in the Low Countries, and to the trading vessels that were protected by the navy under Michiel de Ruyter. The film's main subjects, apart from Ruyter himself, are the internal politics of the country and the oligarchy that formed the ruling class at the time,[11] including the brutal murder of Johan de Witt and the complicated relationship with England, up to the engagement of the William III of Orange with the English princess Mary.[12]
Post-release
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 67% based on six reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10.[13] In a review for the Los Angeles Times, Robert Abele writes: "With loving shots of booming, towering ships so dominant, and decades squeezed into what feels like a week of action, there's barely enough time to develop De Ruyter as a character in his own movie, or even successfully explain his war strategies."[14]
