Die Blechtrommel (1979) Online

Having read the greater-than-life novel by Günther Grass, this film is an interesting viewing for many reasons. Reason number 1: the most important reason is of course, how on earth did they manage to get anyone to play Oskar? The director has shown us a stroke of geniosity by casting a 12-year old boy as Oskar, who besides is a brilliant actor (I wonder whatever became of him). Reason number two: how could anyone ever visualize the grotesque and chaotic scenes in the book? Once again the director comes up with something brilliant, he makes the scenes as graphic as possible, he doesn't care about the MPAA, he doesn't care about movie-watchers with heart problems, and he's not afraid of overdoing anything. He puts as much force and effort in the scenes as possible, and they come out brilliantly. Reason number 3: How does he capture the moods of the multi-layered book? He simply stays very faithful to the books text and uses camera angles, lighting effects and music perfectly to accompany the visions of Günther Grass. Those are the most apparent reasons and because of those, the film is brilliant. The only flaw is leaving the story unfinished (although, the ones who never read the book, won't notice that). Altogether, an interesting, stylish and rewarding film experience.

Germans are unsurpassed when it comes to depict whatever is grotesque, bizarre, monstrous or disturbing. This tendency was best illustrated by the trend called "expressionism", an art movement of the nineteen twenties that applied to painting (Dix, Grosz), cinema (Fritz Lang, Murnau) and theatre (Bertold Brecht's "Threepenny opera"). The movement was dismissed by the Nazis as "degenerate art" and abruptly ended with Hitler's rise to power. As a movie, "The Tin Drum" is a unique modern tribute to expressionism.

Before it was adapted for screen, "The Tin Drum" was already a classic of German modern novel. The author, Gunther Grass, was born in Danzig, now Gdansk, Poland's major port on the Baltic Sea (where the "Solidarnosc" movement actually appeared the very year the movie was released). During the interwar period, Danzig was officially a "free city", but was claimed both by Germany and Poland, and it was the German invasion of Danzig that was the official cause for the outbreak of World War II. So no wonder the hero of "The Tin Drum", little Oscar, is born to a German mother and two different fathers, a Pole (the natural one) and a German (the adoptive one).

When little Oscar is born, his mother predicts that when he turns three, he will be given a tin drum. Prediction comes true, as little Oscar turns out to be a very naughty sort of Peter Pan. Disgusted by the world of adults around him, he attempts suicide at age three by jumping from the top of the cellar staircase. He survives but his growth is stopped. The eerie gnome and his fellow drum become inseparable, and if one ever tries, little Oscar has a lethal weapon : he can shout so shrill that his voice breaks any glass around. So don't mess with little Oscar, who keeps drumming and drumming for any reason, and remains a sarcastic and outcast witness of his time : the rise and fall of Nazism.

The Third Reich is depicted here as background for Oscar's adventures. Since he can't attend school because he will never give up his drum, he makes a career in a troop of circus midgets where his glass-breaking talents can bloom. Most of the time, Nazism is mocked here as a ridiculous farce with a humor à la Lubitsch. At heart though, "The Tin Drum" is far from being just a satire, as tragedy is often underlying under the dark humor. After little Oscar has lost his two fathers at age twenty one, he decides to bury his fetish toy in a pit, and embarks on a westbound refugee train as Germans are massively evicted of their former eastern territories.

This movie has an unusual amount of excellent scenes, but I'd rather not mention them, because there are just too many, and the surprise effect makes them all the more grasping. Needless to say that several of them deal with Oscar's glass-breaking exploits, which soon develop on a massive scale. Many of them are also voluntarily disgusting, but I guess it's the name of the game here. Should you eat before or after seeing this? In case you don't eat before, you might not feel very hungry afterwards, and if you do... well, if you're faint of stomach, better you avoid this movie anyway.

If you get a chance and you don't mind subtitles, the original version seems like a good option. Little David Bennent's mischievous and cringing voice is an excellent performance, and gets enhanced by the rasping sound of the German language. The movie is almost two and a half hours long, and if it's no wonder that many will find it absurd or offending, it is neither slow or boring

A well deserved Palme d'Or in Cannes for 1979.

"That day, thinking about the grown-up world and my own future, I decided to call a halt. To stop growing then and there and remain a three-year-old, a gnome, once and for all"

Goodness, what a marvel this film is! It is certainly the greatest film from Germany that I have seen yet. Winner of the 1979 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, "The Tin Drum" follows the life of a boy named Oskar. After seeing how ludicrous adults act, Oskar decides to stop his growth, and stay three years old forever by falling down the stairs. He succeeds, and the fall has stopped his growth. Aside from the hault of growth, the fall eqips him with two special powers that he regularly manifests. The lesser of these two powers, is repeatedly pounding his tin drum, which he absolutely refuses to let go of. Oskar's undeniable power is to let out a high pitched shriek that will shatter any glass he directs it at. Does it sound strange? Well, the film is much stranger, but also much more beautiful than my description.

The film follows our little Oscar over a period of around two decades, through World War II in Germany. We follow Oskar through his many sexual, emotional, tragic, funny, and beautiful exploits. An absolutely important credit must be given to actor David Bennett, who plays young Oskar. He portrays Oskar as an infant, as a three year-old, as a six year-old, as a twelve year-old, as a 16 year-old, as a 21 year-old...well, you get the picture. Bennett was only 11 at the time, and his performance is very impressive.

I haven't seen very many German films from the last thirty years, but most of the ones I have seen (the excellent "Vanishing," and the immensely mediocre "White Rose") haven't had very good scores. "The Tin Drum" has a very slight, but very servicable, score by the famous Maurice Jarre. The score has an emotional theme played in only a few scenes (notably, the ending), it also has an innocent little music box theme, and surprisingly a cool waltz for scenes involving members of the circus (a big part of the second-half of the film). A very good score. To my knowledge, it was released on LP when the film was released, and on a CD pressed in Japan sometime in the 90's. I read that the (sadly out of print) Kino DVD includes the isolated score as an extra.

It's an excellent film that I strongly connected with, but I can see many people not liking it, it is VERY strange, but I am somebody who has always found VERY strange things extremely beautiful, and "The Tin Drum" is no exception. Over-all, I consider this film a classic, and I'll once again state that it is certainly the greatest film from Germany that I have seen yet.

It's been a while since I've seen this German film but I am still struck by key images in the film and the overall tone set forth casually against a backdrop of the chaos of Nazi Germany's rise and fall.

I do wonder how much of my love for this film is owed to the Gunter Grass novel on which it's based It's a quirky slab of magic realism to be sure, like the film, but I have no idea how closely it hews to the original.

The performances are nuanced and striking in places. The cinematography is appropriately dreary and the editing crisp and unadorned. The centerpiece though, is the performance by the child actor at the core of the film. How much is owed to his voice-over narrative, I don't know, but the man growing inside of the still-grown little boy was handled just beautifully.

It's a disturbing and strangely uplifting movie at once. I recommend it -- especially for those who have seen only black and white view of World War II and the typically American view of our adversaries in German.

"That day, thinking about the grown-up world and my own future, I decided to call a halt. To stop growing then and there and remain a three-year-old, a gnome, once and for all" - Oskar Metzertath

The Tin Drum is based on Gunter Grass's highly acclaimed novel which used magic realism to capture the madness of war, and the folly of the people who made it possible. This movie only tackles the first two sections of the novel, leaving out the post-war events. The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign film in 1980, and the Palm d'Or at Cannes. It was also banned in Oklahoma as "child pornography". Despite moments of brilliance, The Tin Drum left me feeling incomplete and curiously unmoved.

It is a very different kind of film from the others I saw this week, using satire and surrealism to explore people's reactions during the period from 1939 to 1945. It seems to be saying that it is all right to stop growing (that is, participating in the world) as a protest against the cynicism and corruption of the adult world. The setting for the majority of the film, Danzig (now Gdansk) is a major northern port town in Poland. Danzig was a free and independent city until September 1, 1939, when it became the first region taken by Germany at the outset of WWII. After the war, Danzig became a part of Poland again.

The Tin Drum is the story of Oskar Matzerath, a boy who grows up in Eastern Germany before and during World War II. Oskar decides the only way to protest being part of the adult world is by banging on his drum and remaining a child forever. This is his rebuttal of society and his tin drum is his protest against the mentality of his family and neighborhood, or perhaps against all passive people in Nazi Germany at that time. Oskar tries to shock the world out of its inhumanity. His life reflects Germany's struggle to free itself from its own dream of Teutonic superiority and find peace in the national soul.

David Bennent as Oskar gives an outstanding performance, creating a character that is both haunting and frightening. He looks like a little man in a child's body but his eyes are deep and have a very knowing look that seemed to be looking right through me.

Oskar is not a cute little updated version of Peter Pan. Since age three (when he was given his first tin drum), Oskar can scream with such a high pitch that he can shatter any piece of glass. He even controls his scream to the point where he can break windows on the other side of the city, or etch writing into glass. Oskar uses his ability to manipulate and control the adult world, often using vicious and cynical snide comments about the insanity around him. At one point, he disrupts a Nazi rally by changing the beat of his tin drum to the Blue Danube which the band then follows. The ensuing scene where the crowd breaks into a dance and the rain comes down leaving the Nazi soldiers bewildered is one of the best in the film.

I found the scenes where Oskar joins a midget troupe and finds loving companions of his own kind to be very tender and moving. However, the film became morally ambiguous for me when Oskar and his troupe decide to entertain the Nazi soldiers at the front lines. Schlondorff never really makes it clear what his motivations are and Oskar's actions seems to contradict his essentially anarchist protest for most of the film. The Tin Drum also contains some objectionable scenes of childhood sexuality and grotesque depictions of slithering eels being caught using a severed horse head as bait. The result, needless to say, is stomach churning.

I found The Tin Drum to be absorbing and thought provoking yet, despite moments of brilliance, for me it did not add up to a totally satisfying experience.

The Tin Drum is Extraordinary. It captures the perverse side of the individual and the whole. Oskar is conscious inside the womb. He is a product of kissing cousins. He is an inbred. He is a product of a secret love affair. Oskar's expressions capture the evil that would soon devour his home state. It is set in World War II, Poland, a town called Danzig. A town with billowing smoke and towering spiral steeples. A Grimm's Faerie Tale.

The film plays out like a fantasy. To never grow up. The Tin Drum contains some of the most fantastic images found in a feature film; The shattering of the jar with the fetus; The cracking of the teachers glasses ; The eels oozing out of the horses head as the seagulls scream and Oskar bangs his drum. It was an incredible scene to read on the pages of Gunter Grass' novel but to see a filmmaker capture the words and turned it into a real life experience was awe-inspiring. Directed so well.

It is an erotic film. Intense scenes of desire. Primal. It captures the dark side of us all. The scenes where Oskar and his first adolescent love exchange spit and fizz are very perverse and effective.

Oskar does grow up as a man but remains the size of a 3 year old. He bangs his Tin Drum to drown out the craziness around him. World war II must have been horribly felt by those so close. The Nazi regime seemed so frightening. As a three year old who was conscious in the womb, how would Oskar see this direction that man, who once was three years old, has taken. What is wrong with us?

Overall, it is about the next generation wanting the previous one to get over itself and enjoy this paradise called Earth.

The film is mesmerizing. It is a beautiful piece of celluloid art. The magical realism is captured very effectively. How about doing One Hundred Years of Solitude? Here's your director.

Victor Nunnally BFA Film Production and Dramatic Theory, AA in Performing Arts

Die Blechtrommel, based on the highly acclaimed German novel by the same name. Oscar is 3 years old. For his birthday he gets a tin drum. He sees how grown ups act, (this is during the rise of the Nazi Party) and he decides to stop growing.

The film is filled with moral ethics and symbolism. The tin drum Oscar always drums on is a symbol of his protest against the cruelty that grown ups create, not to mention the rise of Nazism. Die Blechtrommel even has large scenes that are only for symbolism. It is probably one of the most important German films since WW2. Somehow, the German make the best films that decipher Nazism and WW2 (like Stalingrad and the new Der Untergang) which very clearly shows their self awareness. I think Die Blechtrommel is one of the finest examples of this.

It is often quite absurd this film, one of the most memorable scenes is when Oscar watches a Nazi rally. As an officer is marching through the crowd, the orchestra is playing a march. Oscar starts playing his drum, and make all the musicians play false, and after a while they all start to play "An der Schönen blauen Donau" and the crowd starts to dance.

Die Blechtrommel is one of the most memorable films ever, whet ever you liked it or not. Some scenes are very sick, and i do not encourage people who don't have a stomach for strong films to see this. For other film lovers though, this is one of the greatest films ever.

In Danzig, the young Agnes (Angela Winkler) has a triangle of love with her Polish cousin Jan Bronski (Daniel Olbrychski) and the dealer Alfred Matzerath (Mario Adorf). She marries Alfred, but has a son, Oskar (David Bennent), with Bronski. On the day of his third birthday, Oskar decides to stop growing up. Along the next years, the family lives the life after World War I and before and during World War II and the rise and fall of the Nazi Party.

"Die Blechtrommel" is a bizarre cult-movie with a wonderful art direction, too long and boring surrealistic story and an annoying lead character. The movie has grotesque scenes and is senseless most of the time. The symbolism of the stuck German after WWI and the boy with a drum that refuses to grow-up is obvious but the 142 minutes running time entwined with disturbing and nonsense scenes give the idea of the intention of raising polemic to be in the spotlights. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "O Tambor" ("The Drum")

I saw this flick many years ago, and there are images from this movie I shall probably take with me to the grave.

Things I saw in this movie that vividly stuck in my brain are such things as a huge eel being pulled out of a severed horses head that was just dragged from the sea on a rope, a soldier having carnal knowledge with a lady in the middle of a field while being hunted by another soldier, a young boy spitting into a hand of a young girl ...

And I could go on. This movie I found to be extremely unique and varied in many ways. I don't know that I can really recommend this movie all in all, but if you do watch it, be prepared for a very unique experience film wise.

Beamer

For me, this was definitely a hit-and-miss film, but luckily, most of the good things about this movie are also quite memorable. This is a weird movie, for better or for worse, but because it is so strange, there is absolutely no way that you will find this predictable. In fact, if you know little or nothing about this movie, keep it that way so that you can appreciate each odd twist when you watch it for the first time. I found the movie to be somewhat overlong, and the best parts of the story tended to be earlier in the film, but much of this picture is top-notch. I think most people would agree that love it or hate it, this is certainly a film that you won't soon forget.

The Tin Drum is one of the strangest films that I have seen in a long time. Strange not necessarily being a bad thing. It contains a feel similar to that of other eastern european films. It follows the life of Oskar, a three year old German boy who refuses to stop playing the tin drum that he received for his birthday. After viewing how ludicrous adults act, Oskar decides to stop his growth, and stay three years old forever.

The Tin Drum has been banned in Oklahoma, and was the feature of some programs on censored films. The cause of this controversy is the fact that Oskar grows old, but never changes his toddler appearance. This plot line troubles some, especially when Oskar reaches puberty and becomes interested in the fairer sex.

Despite the controversies, The Tin Drum is a film that should not be missed. It is definetely one of the best films to come out of Germany in the past 20 years.

"The innocent are so few that two of them seldom meet. When they do meet, their victims lie strewn all round." - Elizabeth Bowen

Volker Schlondorff's "The Tin Drum" stars David Bennent as Oskar Matzerath, a young boy growing up in 1920s Danzig (a city which once straddled the border between Germany and Poland). Because he's possessed an adult's (somewhat pessimistic) awareness since birth, Oskar begins to develop a deep hatred of humanity. Oskar thus decides to not advance beyond the age of three. He will not grow up in this world, and instead spends his days banging loudly on a tin drum as a show of protest.

Oskar is initially painted as history's moral objector. He sees what others don't and protests what others keenly follow. Quickly, however, Oskar's drumming becomes Schlondorff's blunt metaphor for ineffectual artisans. Oskar drums and screams, but no one listens. Nazisim gathers steam, Poland is invaded, Germany's "economic miracle" occurs, and he becomes a witness to much adultery, cruelty and horror.

Oskar himself becomes increasingly amoral. His body may preserve an outward innocence, but inside he grows self absorbed and cruel. And so though Oskar interrupts Nazy rallies and sympathises with the Jewish man who sold him a tin drum (and who is later killed during "Kristallnacht", the "Night of the Broken Glass", upon which the Nazis destroyed Jewish stores and synagogues), he is nevertheless quick to don a Nazi uniform and play his drum for Nazi officials.

By the film's end, Oskar epitomises every man infantalized by, or made an obedient child to, the tides of history. "I prefer to be a spectator, not an artist," Oskar says. He's adopted a tone of total futility, and comes to believe that imagination, action and conviction are all inadequate in the fight against place, time and political currents. But while this is Oskar's belief – he later throws his drum away altogether – it is not something Schlondorff necessarily affirms. Oskar's drumming is shown to have the power to destabilise. In one of his more successful protests, an entire Nazi band is led into confusion by his boisterous percussion.

Like the works of Wojciech Has, Schlondorff's tone here is a strange blend of surrealism, fantasy, farce, tragedy and much queasy imagery. Oskar himself has the face of a gnome, and his antics are frequently nauseating. The film also makes heavy use of symbolism, many of its major points conveyed obliquely. For example, Oskar is shown to be born in 1924, the year when Germany's economy began its post WW1 climb. On Oskar's third birthday the country's economic stability is then aligned with the child's own refusal to progress, a stagnation which echoes Germany's suspension of democratic and liberal freedoms. Oskar's drum is even shown to be threatened with a "silencing" on his sixth birthday, which occurs in 1933, the year the Nazis came into power, symbolising Nazism's quest to silence all dissenters.

Other issues are raised almost imperceptibly. A throwaway line, in which one character states that he was not present for "Kristallnacht", highlights a stance which was common in Germany after the war: "it happened but I was not there; I did not participate". Meanwhile, Oskar's own uncle is quick to replace a picture of Beethoven with Hitler when the Nazi Party comes into power, and replaces it just as quickly when the Nazi's are defeated. He is the "everyday" Nazi, his allegiances blowing with the winds of change.

One of the most disturbing passages in the film revolves around fishermen plucking eels from a dead horse's head, a sequence which mirrors the eating habits of other characters in the film, all of whom are shown to be always munching on seafood. This food is later aligned to the corpses of English sailors sunk in naval battles off the coast of Germany. While Oskar protests, Germany eats her foes (while the country rots from the head down?).

Anti-semitism is touched upon openly – Jewish shop-keepers are bullied and driven to suicide – but briefly. More interesting are several sequences in which Oskar damns the Catholic Church for not resisting Hitler (see Costa Gavras' "Amen"). In one of the film's more overt moments, Oskar slaps a statue of Christ and accuses him of not helping. Meanwhile, religion is mirrored to Germany's frenzied, quasi religious adulation for Hitler, whom Oskar calls "the Gas Man", a warped version of Father Christmas. Mirrored to these two national fathers (Christ and Hitler) are Oskar's own two fathers (a Polish and German father), both of whom are condemned to death by Oskar's behaviour.

Schlondorff would revisit similar material with his 2004 film, "The Ninth Day".

8/10 – See "The Garden of the Finzi Continis", "The Damned", "Seven Beauties", "Special Section" and "Protector".

I saw this movie back in 80'or 81' on HBO in the middle of the night. I was only 7 years old and everyone in the house had fallen asleep and I sat there enthralled. I did not know what it was about throughout the entire move. I didn't understand what the story was but the scenes in the movie have stayed with me for 20 years! Due to the internet,20 years later I am able to come on and find out what in the world I saw that night because I remembered that the title had Drum in it. I still don't know if the story of this movie will be any good but I can make the comment that this movie absolutely has the most memorable scenes I've ever encountered in a film before.

In the beautiful town of Danzig we watch this strange story of a boy who, after a terrible accident that he himself provoked, decides not to grow up and remains like some tragic Peter Pan version. The story is developed between 1899 and the end of WWII. This is an adult world seen through the eyes of a child with all its dramatic events of several kinds including an amorous triangle formed by the boy's mother, her husband and a cousin of hers. This triangle is accepted by them and everybody around them. The ascent of Nazism and the war that follows shape and form the story background from a certain point on with all their tragic and dramatic events. The movie is well made and directed but its symbolism is not very clear I mean if there is a message involved it's not very well passed on to the viewers through images and dialogues.

Is it possible to find a movie repulsive yet still feel it's worth a watch? The Tin Drum asked that of me last night, and I have the overwhelming feeling that I am not alone. The film won multiple awards during its heyday. It tied with Apocalypse Now (1979) for the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or and, if that weren't enough, it took home an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Yet being aware of the film's remarkable accolades does not make watching it any easier.

Based on Gunter Grass's controversial novel, the film is a surreal first-person saga about a boy from Danzig named Oskar who is brought into this world with a full consciousness. On his third birthday he's given a white and red lacquered tin drum and is told one day he'll be as tall as his assumed father Alfred (Adorf). Oskar becomes so disgusted with the decadence and hypocrisy of the adult world that he decides right then and there to never grow up. To everyone's surprise he doesn't; and goes through his life in the body of a three-year-old. Armed only with his tin drum and a piercing scream that can shatter glass, Oskar goes through his peculiar life as the Nazis grow in prominence, gain power, and use Danzig as a pretense to invade Poland in 1939.

The Tin Drum makes a lot of political proclamations and overtures using Oskar as a siren against Fascism. Oskar's mother Agnes (Winkler) is meant to represent the German population of Danzig who are seduced by German Nationalism yet choose to underplay its consequences. Within the span of a decade, Oskar and Agnes familiarize themselves with three men; the husband Alfred who embraces Nazism, Jan (Olbrychski), the families Polish cousin (and Oskar's possible father) who stands against them, and Markus a Jewish toy merchant who supplies Oskar with all his drums. All three men are infatuated with Agnes but hardly treat her as an equal. Jan lusts for her and she obliges him with regular rendezvous at a seedy hotel until she suddenly becomes pregnant and is distraught over the implications.

It is established early on that Oskar is an unreliable narrator with mischievous ends. His plan to stay young is a narrative tool of magical realism which seeps into the story whenever Oskar plays his drum. The results are darkly humorous such as when an entire Nazi rally is interrupted by Oskar's incessant tapping. The crowd of dedicated Nazis suddenly break into a waltz instead of saluting a popular dignitary. Other details are exaggerated to fit the perspective of a particularly nasty little child especially when scenes are projected by an omnipotent perspective. In one scene Agnes and Jan make love while Oskar spies from the top of a church spire. He can't see but we can see Jan's awkward gyrations and Agnes's earth-shattering screams mimicking what a six-year-old might think sex is.

This is where the film starts to become thoroughly unpleasant. If meant as political allegory, the film is sub-par but taken as a complex yarn of psychological spectra, the film is simultaneously brilliant and an uncomfortable watch. Is Oskar really a fully-realized adult when he exits the womb? If so, are we meant to root for him as he tortures the adults around him in much the same way a scientist would a lab rat? Oskar never "grows up" biologically, yet emotionally his character arc bends like that of a coming-of-age tale, right down to his sexual awakening and rebellious teenage years. Depending on your perspective these stories are the recollections of a small brat with a drum or the repressed memories of a young dwarf's life torn asunder by callousness and absurdity.

It's heavily insinuated Oskar is affected by dwarfism and not actually a physical child for twenty-some years. When Oskar comes face to face with a gaggle of circus folk he finds a kindred spirit in Berba (Hakl) a performer who says he too has "chosen" to stay little. Despite knowing this however, actor David Bennent was only eleven when he starred in The Tin Drum, thus your ability to stomach Oskar's sexual experimentation in the hands of flirtatious Maria (Thalbach) (who was 25) is dependent on your suspension of disbelief. I for one find these scenes distressing especially when he uses his stature to his advantage.

I put The Tin Drum on the same ballpark as Schindler's List (1993), A Clockwork Orange (1971), and Requiem for a Dream (2000). It's a movie you should see because it challenges your assumptions, makes bold artistic choices and has something important to say. Additionally it says what it needs to in a package that, granted isn't easily digestible but will leave an impact long after watching. It's also a movie the average movie-goer should only watch once in a lifetime.

This movie is a masterpiece and surely one of the greatest film of the 70's if not of all time. It is a very original work from the brilliant director Volker Schloendorff which combines expressionism, avant garde, zeitgeist, and magic realism flavors. It successfully translates the complexity of Nobel Price winner Gunter Grass' novel. The face of David Bennent is magnetic throughout and the movie is served by outstanding performances from Mario Adorf, Angela Winkler, Daniel Olbrychski, Katharina Thalbach and even singer Charles Aznavour. This movie should be rated largely above 8 like Apocalypse Now (they both shared the Cannes Festival Palme d'Or in 1979) and it won the Oscar for best foreign movie in 1980. To be seen at least once in a life time.

Danzig in the 1920s/1930s. Oskar Matzerath, son of a local dealer, is a most unusual boy. Equipped with full intellect right from his birth he decides at his third birthday not to grow up as he sees the crazy world around him at the eve of World War II.

This is very much a fantasy film. IMDb says it is a war drama, which is true enough, being set in the place and time that it is. But this is less about the war and more about Oskar, which I think makes it a fantasy film. His imagination is incredible, or perhaps more incredible is the idea that none of this is his imagination at all. His ability to alter the world around him is quite interesting.

The idea of a tin drum as a symbol of protest makes sense. It becomes even more interesting when put in the hands of a small child, protesting against life itself. Such an action is unheard of.

Made in 1979 this award winning German film is an adaptation of the book of the same name by Günter Grass. It is the story of Oskar who is born to a mother who loves two men and a grandmother with a past and very accommodating skirts. On his third birthday he sees how the adults around him are behaving and is less than pleased. So he makes up his mind that he will stop growing up.

He is also inseparable from his tin drum – which he bangs at all occasions and needs to regularly replace. He also has a gift of having such a high powered scream that it will shatter glass – this he uses when ever he is displeased. His rejection of his family and their middle class attitudes is set against the rise of Nazism and Der Fuhrer. Even though his body will not grow his mind certainly does and that will bring its own problems.

This is a truly memorable film, with acting, direction and camera work that is as close to flawless that I have seen. It is 136 minutes long but seems much shorter which is always the sign of a quality film. There are scenes that come close to bizarre but that too is used to show the absurdist nature of what was taking place at the time and beneath the pomp of the rallies, and the like, lay the very real dangers that Hitler and co would bring down on Germany. This is one of those films that all serious cinephiles need to see, I am glad I finally have.

I'm reviewing the Criterion DVD restoration of 2013.

I was talking about this film this morning with a friend. It is one of his favorites; he said he could remember even small details like the heart-shaped crack in the wineglass that Oskar makes for Roswitha. Reading some of the reviews above, I'm astonished at the lack of empathy and imagination displayed by the reviewers. As a Christian--even a lax one--I find nothing depraved or obscene in this movie. It is something you have to watch with a historical perspective. Nazi youth rallies were exercises in mass hysteria, just as the one shown here. Oskar's parents had to be watchful in case the police caught him--as a dwarf, he was in danger of being euthanized. There are many instances of a police state that I could mention but will not.

The performances are marvelous. Angela Winker is great as the mother carrying on an affair with Bronski under the oblivious eyes of the family. Mario Adorf as Matzerath plays a warm, caring man who is caught up in the Nazi craziness. He understands that his wife is cheating on him but ignores it for the sake of the family. Daniel Olbrychski is the elegant and befuddled Bronski to a T. David Bennent's eyes sometimes remind me of the kids in Village of the Damned, but he's always convincing.

As winner of the Foreign Language Oscar for 1979, The Tin Drum has been on my list of movies to look out for for a while. It's a lot stranger than I anticipated- possibly more unconventional than the winner of the same award for 1978, Get Out Your Handkerchiefs. Say the movie is a coming-of-age tale of a boy living before and during World War II in Poland, and yeah, you'd think it'd be fairly typical. Now say the protagonist never grows more than he was at age three, screams so high he can shatter glass whenever you try to take his drum away, and that his mom dies from an addiction to eating raw fish- and you'd say, what is this?

The Tin Drum is a surreal dark comedy that is often more unusual than funny, but it is, generally, interesting and enjoyable to watch. You just have to be willing to accept a protagonist who isn't totally likable. Oskar's screaming actually hurt my ears, his drumming creates disruptions, he doesn't seem to mourn his parents' deaths, and despite some glimpses into the Nazis' cruelty, doesn't seem to have any problem with entertaining German troops. What this movie has to offer is a view of history, and life generally, quite possibly unlike any other. There is some colour, some laughs, some tragedy, and some eroticism, making for competent storytelling. Do I agree this is the best foreign language movie of 1979? I'd go with Tarkovsky's Stalker. But this is a movie worth seeing.

The imagery in this film is certainly vivid: eels slithering through the orifices of dead horses, frogs being boiled alive, children being forced to drink urine. Then there's the douching episode, and the notorious kiddie porn scenes. Yep, it's gross.

And all in the service of what? Why, those big themes of course:

1) Nazis aren't nice.

2) See 1).

When you are sticking your neck out with daring themes like those, then I guess it's all right if you overdo things a little bit.

I last saw this film 20 years ago when it was new. It was just as offensive then as it is now, and just as pointless.

There is one reason to see this "classic". The great Polish leading man, Daniel Olbrychski, makes one of his first non-Polish appearances, although he has virtually nothing to do, except expose his bare bum. This film just can't get anything right.

Watch for the scene where cute little Oskar blinds his teacher. What a joker! What a hero! And what a performance from little Oskar. Sometimes he stares straight ahead! Sometimes he beats his little drum! Sometimes he does both at the same time!! You'd think talent like that could stop a measly world war.

This film is only two hours twenty minutes but feels much, much longer. That unfortunately hasn't changed since the '70's either -- the interminability of unadulterated pretentiousness. Bring extra pillows to sit on if you feel up to the challenge of taking a dip in this sty.

Do you dismiss a movie because it is strange? Some do, and rate this film as a story about an obnoxious little boy who goes around banging a drum and breaking glass.

Firstly, the performance of David Bennent as Oskar was phenomenal. As an 11 or 12 year old, he played a part from infancy to 21. Maybe he was obnoxious, but I choose to believe that he was making a powerful statement about the undesirability of growing up in a world where adults do not act very adult.

Set against the backdrop of WWII, it can also be viewed as rebellion against war and fascism.

Strange, sometimes evil, but nevertheless a powerful film that should be seen by all.

There's never a dull moment in this allegorical film about growing up -- or deciding NOT to grow up -- in a German/Polish village between the first and second World Wars. Everyday life is coarse. The cobblestone streets are crowded with horse-drawn buggies and vendors. Everyone seems to shout or to talk emphatically. There are pompous political festivals and fustian speeches that end in rainstorms. Enthusiastic bands march clumsily around, hitting innumerable clinkers. People sit at tables and eat unappetizing meals, not decorously, but more like animals -- not "essen" but "fressen." Sometimes they stuff themselves with fish until they die. There are grotesqueries: circuses, dwarfs, clowns, superhumanly tall psychotics. If we didn't know it was a German movie directed by Volker Schlondorff, we might mistake it for Fellini.

But it's from Gunther Grass's novel about a little boy who sees the political climate changing around him and decides to stop growing at the age of three. We follow him until he's twenty, through strife, love affairs, grief, disgust.

The background for all this is the development of Naziism in Germany, which the little boy, Oscar, refuses to participate in. What a case of arrested development although, like Forrest Gump, he has one outstanding ability that makes him different from others, and that's a high piercing scream that shatters glass.

It's a strange film, ambiguous and full of symbols, some of which got by me. I didn't get Oscar's attachment to his tin drum, for instance, unless it stands for Oscar's neoteny, which, itself, stands for Oscar's unwillingness to grow along with Fascism. In that case, though, the drum would be a higher-order symbol, a symbol of a symbol, or a metasymbol. Where was I?

Stanley Kubrick and Adrian Lyne both had a hell of a time getting their versions of "Lolita" made and released. (Child pornography, about which you wouldn't know, Lo.) But here Oscar runs around bare naked, falls in love with and marries a midget, and has intercourse with a teenaged girl whom he impregnates. But the blue noses are not up in arms about it. Those who made "Lolita" a nightmare to release have said nothing about it. Oh, Lo, how the mighty have ignored it.

I haven't read the novel but I admire the movie for a couple of reasons, not just because of its recognition that Naziism was an aberration, but because everyone is given his or her due. The evil is there, and it's explored, but not exemplified in stereotypes. Oscar's step father, for instance, is swept up in the movement and wears his khaki uniform proudly, but he's more stupid than cruel -- brusque and thoughtless without being unkind. And Sigismund Markus (Charles Aznavour), the dreamy Jewish dry goods dealer who is in love with Oscar's mother. When he learns she's having an affair with a Polish citizen, he ironically advises her, "Don't bet on the Poles. Bet on the Germans. Or, better yet, bet on me." And if Oscar is the hero, sometimes the hero acts like a spoiled little brat.

The film is narrated by Oscar in his little boy's voice and adds a good deal to our grasp of his feelings and of the backdrop against which this drama is played. It's not dull exposition. "I went here, then I lost track of my beloved, then I looked for another drum." Instead: "Once there was a gullible people who were told that Santa Claus was coming, but Santa Claus turned out to be the GAS man." (Cut to a scene of soldiers clearing a building with a flame thrower.) The narration is read most expressively.

The movie begins with Oscar's grandmother back around the turn of the century, sitting on a heap of damp earth in a bleak farmland, scorching some potatoes in a small fire. At the end, when Oscar and the others leave, she remains behind. The final shot is of a train drawing away in the distance while an old lady sits before a smoky fire on a heap of dirt. I think I managed to catch that particular symbol. She's Anna Livia Plurabelle, right? A remarkable film.

One of the most unique, inventive and flawless films I've ever seen. The first half displays brilliant symbolisms scattered throughout. The most obvious are what the tin drum and Oskar's screech symbolize, anti-establishment and anti-culture. Oskar uses his drum as an act of rebellion against the establishment, a more public way than his early rebellion in deciding not to grow by breaking his spine. He bangs his drum constantly, rebelling against his teacher at school, his father and even the church. When people attempt to stop this rebellion, his symbolic anti-culture technique kicks in with his wailing screech. This screech smashes all of the valuable, material possessions that the vein culture covets so dearly.

One of my favorite, less obvious symbolisms comes when the family encounters the fisherman who uses the horse's head to catch eels. What comes across is how Oskar uses his drum to tone out the terror and tragedy of what occurs around him. Much like his refusal to grow physically, he uses his drum as a way to refuse to grow mentally and emotionally which is displayed later in the film in his relationship with Maria. After the first half though, the symbolisms really take a backseat and Oskar's transition from a young, immature teenager into a strong adult becomes the forefront of the film. This gives the spotlight to the remarkable performance from David Bennent. He shows maturity and range remarkably far beyond his age in one of the defining performances on all time, I think. He was only 13 when the film was released, yet he shows more strength and absorption into his character than a good majority of those three times his age. I was stunned by how magnificent he was.

Not devoting so much attention to the well-known literary background of the film, I would like to point out three vital aspects which discern this piece of art.

First, this is a very physiological work, full of intense, sometimes disgusting scenes (the frog soup drinking or the famous episode with eels) that will strike a blow into your sensual perception. However, we should bear in mind that European and, especially, Eastern European art simply HAS far deeper traditions of portraying those "ugly" and "dirty" natural physiological processes such as urinating, puking, spewing sputum and so on, in which The Tin Drum abounds and which therefore will leave more lasting impact on the Western viewers who belong to sterility-centred cultural environment.

Second, the film is not an easy one to watch and comprehend, as it totally screws up your brain, not fitting into any of genres you would like to stick it. The most precise genre perhaps would be called – a grotesque gradually being won over by a tragedy. The first scene where we meet Oskar is rather light and comical one, as he looks to us from the womb with a gaze full of suspicion and sarcasm. Yet his character is not a role of a comic dwarf, he is a metaphor for the prosecutor of mankind and his time. Another scene includes his mother gobbling raw fish, because she has turned out to be pregnant again – so grotesque a scene, you feel amused. In a minute, she commits suicide. So it is impossible to watch the film in a stable, consequent mood; in the end, The Tin Drum leaves you disharmonic, disillusioned and unbalanced, just as you should feel about life itself.

Third, we come to the obvious conclusion that The Tin Drum as all remarkable works of art must be viewed as a symphony of symbols and metaphors. The character of the little drummer Oskar evidently is the most powerful one, as he embodies the true attitude we each have for ourselves somewhere deep inside. We all feel so small, so willing to be pitied and protected, so not-belonging to the dreadful world outside, so humiliated by our comrades, so naive and so terribly lonely. And in the same time our inner selves are just as cruel and self-centred as Oskar is, and we hold so tight to our little tin drum (should it be our surroundings, people, money, status, looks or anything else which we believe to be constituting our identities from), and we yearn so keenly and so unsuccessfully to return back to our mothers' wombs and hide forever from the fierce and violent meaninglessness of this life.