the fourth man ( paul verhoeven netherlands 1983 ) . a film base on a novella by gerard reve and that work best a a thriller . that quite surprising and consider reve roughly need a hundred page for just a minor plot twist and tension be the last thing on my mind when read his work . the fourth man be top heavy on symbolism . paul verhoeven be generally extremely preoccupy with prove something to mostly hostile critic and i be never sure what it be exactly he be try to prove . he usually underestimate his audience and tell his story in such an unsubtle way and he quickly diverge from the original idea or storyline and and almost seem to forget what need to be see on screen and what need to be leave out . in the fourth man he be not a explicit on detail the plot a he be with sex and nudity ( of which there plenty ) but and a in most of his film and he seem afraid the audience wouldn not get it and hammer home the story with overt symbolism mix with some supposedly shocking nudity and graphic sex scene . there hardly a scene without sex or full frontal nudity and most of it so maddeningly gratuitous and in your face and it undermine an otherwise good story . nevertheless and when you can cope with verhoeven pretty obvious satiric approach and it quite an entertaining thriller at time with some intriguing plot twist and good performance all round and thom hoffman and jeroen krabbé in particular . camera obscura positive .