Director Paul Verhoeven was no stranger to controversy over cinematic sexuality when he made Basic Instinct and Showgirls. He had already gained global notoriety with the graphic sexuality in his 1980 Spetters, with its concomitant sexual frankness in its tale of the life of young people in Rotterdam.

Unlike those later Hollywood pictures, however, Spetters (a slang term for sexually attractive people) crackles with a realistic slice of life view of the troubled lives of these people, without the salacious attitudes seen in Verhoeven's later work.

The story centers on the dreams of three young working-class men who are involved in motocross racing, the hot prospect Rien Hartman (Hans van Tongeren), his mechanic Eef Dewitt (Toon Agterberg) and the hapless and clueless Hans Black (Maarten Spanjer).

As Rien tries to emulate the champion racer Gerrit Witkamp (Rutger Hauer), the group is split apart by the machinations of the manipulative blonde sexpot Fientje (Renée Soutendijk).

As things disintegrate, we see that the trio's seemingly innocent escapades have a dark undercurrent, reflected in Eef's penchant for gay-bashing and Rien's despair after an accident cuts short his racing career.

Riens accident paralyzes him which leads him to suicide while his over-sexed girlfriend Maja (Marianne Boyer) turns to religion because of Rien's impotence.

One of the main characers (Eef, played by Toon Agterberg) is a homophobe and gaybasher. He is being raped by a gang of other gay bashers when he is caught watching them getting sucked by a victim.

Afterwards Fientje finds Eef and with her brother Jaap in bed together after they had sex.

I have seen this movie when I was thinking of my own coming-out. It made an impact especially the fact that after Eef was raped he "became" gay. This twist in the story is wrong in my opinion.

Gays who are still 'in the closet' might get the wrong idea from this movie. You are either gay or you are not. No one can make someone else gay nor straight.

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