In 1973, this was the most successful Dutch movie ever, and with 3.3 million tickets sold, it was still the most attended Dutch movie in The Netherlands during its 50-year anniversary in 2023.
According to director Paul Verhoeven, this movie was submitted to the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in France, only to be angrily rejected as "pornographic" by its board of directors. However, Verhoeven noted that the Japanese movie In the Realm of the Senses (1976), a French co-production that was even more explicit in its depiction of sexual activities and violence, was accepted into the festival without problems three years later.
Director Paul Verhoeven and director of photography Jan de Bont had just seen The French Connection (1971), and agreed that its realistic look with natural light, hand-held photography and staccato editing would be perfect for this movie. However, when filming started, Verhoeven got cold feet and wanted to revert to fixed cameras and artificial lighting, just as he had shot his previous movie, Wat zien ik (1971). De Bont bluntly refused to comply and shot the first scenes the way he intended. This caused a major falling-out between them, and Verhoeven nearly had de Bont fired after three days of shooting. However, after seeing the first rushes, Verhoeven admitted that he was wrong, and that de Bont had made the right decision.
According to Monique van de Ven, Rutger Hauer used up most of his salary to buy a motorcycle while filming. He parked it somewhere and forgot to lock it. The motorcycle was stolen the same day.
The scene at the beach was different in the original script. Olga (Monique van de Ven) was to have used a German S.S. knife from home to make the sandwiches, revealing that her mother had gotten it during a relationship with an S.S. officer during World War II. However, when it was time to film the scene, they had forgotten to bring the knife. In his desperation to come up with a solution, director Paul Verhoeven remembered an anecdote from author Jan Wolkers (on whose book this movie was based) about how he once covered his wife from neck to toe under the sand. Verhoeven used this idea in the movie as well, and he liked the result far better than the original scene.