Oskar Matzerath is a very unusual boy. Refusing to leave the womb until promised a tin drum by his mother, Agnes, Oskar is reluctant to enter a world he sees as filled with hypocrisy and injustice, and vows on his third birthday to never grow up. Miraculously, he gets his wish. As the Nazis rise to power in Danzig, Oskar wills himself to remain a child, beating his tin drum incessantly and screaming in protest at the chaos surrounding him.
Jadran Film Artemis Film Franz Seitz Filmproduktion Argos Films Hallelujah Films GGB-14 Neue Bioskop Film Auditrust
O Tambor, 錫鼓, 铁皮鼓, 锡鼓, 拒绝长大的男孩, Blaszany bębenek, 양철북, Le tambour, De Blikken Trommel, Blecktrumman, Το Ταμπούρλο, Blikktrommen, El tambor de hojalata, Teneke Trampet, Le Tambour, Il tamburo di latta, Plechový bubínek, Жестяной барабан, A bádogdob, ブリキの太鼓, תוף הפח, Toba de tinichea, Тенекиеният барабан, Plechový bubienok, Бляшаний барабан, Peltirumpu, Chiếc Trống Thiếc, Bliktrommen, El timbal de llauna, ดีเบลชทรอมเมิล
France
Cannes Film Festival
USSR
Germany16
FranceU
Finland
Netherlands12
Italy
USAR
JapanR18+
South Korea18
Czechia15+
Slovakia
Netherlands12
Finland
France
Finland
Germany
Netherlands12
Czechia
Finland
France
Germany
Italy
Japan
Netherlands
Slovakia
South Korea
USA
USSR
For someone drumming for all those years, you'd think he'd be a little more talented.
Famous for splitting the 1979 Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival with the Coppola masterpiece "Apocalypse Now," alas, two winners. This 142-minute sorrow and the pity fantasy made from Germany has Oskar a.k.a. Urchin Forrest Gump of Poland (David Bennent, who was 12 when he shot this) as a 3-year old who decides during the Nazi rise that he will never grow and remain a child. Perpetually he bangs his drum in anger and revolt. His other habit is a scream that can break glass.
I found it torturous, with its jangly family squabbling and its barrage of symbolic messages, for at least 50-minutes. Then there's a scene where Oskar disrupts a Nazi rally and his drum is able…
Restored cut.
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON ÷ Emir Kusturica's UNDERGROUND + mad pubic hair and sexual taboo = THE TIN DRUM. what a beguiling film... hard to imagine such a resolutely strange, morally ambiguous epic winning an academy award in this day and age. David Bennent's alien embodiment of Oskar is one of the cinema's great child performances, embarrassing the precocious antics seen in infinitely easier fare like BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD. will review in full for Criterion Corner soon.
Gesehen in der restaurierten Fassung. Vergessen wie irre, schwitzig, geil, ätzend und dreckig dieser Film doch eigentlich ist - oder schon immer war. Nur ist der Pferdekopf voller Aale jetzt noch ein Spur glitschiger, verfaulter, ekelerregender - und die Kotze von Angela Winkler (endlich habe ich den Erinnerungsanker, den ich nach „Dark“ so dringend gesucht habe) eine gut aufgelöste Ecke bröckeliger. Leider handelt es sich bei der Restaurierung „nur“ um die 142-Minütige Kinofassung, was ich ein klein wenig schade finde. Ich hätte gerne auch Szenen wie die Nonnen-Himmelfahrt, die Rede zu Rasputin, die Fajngold-Heimkehr und den Suizid des Gemüsehändlers in 4K gesehen. Ansonsten: ein nach wie vor grotesker und kontroverser Brocken. Wenn man sich denn auf all die Diskussionen einlassen…
"Kannste nicht? Oder willste nicht? Bürschchen! Kannst doch sonst immer alles!"
(M)
Seen through the eyes of its young protagonist, Oskar Matzerath, The Tin Drum communicates the circumstances which foreshadowed the period of National Socialism in Germany along with its widespread injustices and brutal discriminations. David Bennent provides an extraordinary portrayal as Matzerath, and his achievement accelerates this stimulating film. It's an enterprising portrayal of someone who unequivocally advances to the pounding of his own drum and offers up an artistic representation of an individual who prefers not to connect with others. There's a generous sophistication in its direction by Volker Schlöndorff as he employs an extraordinary figurative language.
Based upon a novel by Günter Grass, and co-adapted by Schlöndorff, it delivers a highly damning portrait of the political incomprehension of Germany's…
This is definitely one of the most provocative works in cinema history. Depicting the sexuality of an 11-year-old actor is an uncomfortable choice, but at the same time, it's what makes this overlong odyssey ultimately memorable.
The Tin Drum is so overstuffed with grand ideas that it never takes off from the burden, but its messed-up demonstrations of anti-human sentiments are palpably felt. Told from a boy's perspective, The Tin Drum explores the darkest tissues of humanity, from incest to Nazism. It's very true to its German roots, by revisiting the ugliest period of its national history with a touch of sexual perversion and magical realism. Not one single character appears likable in this period drama for the right reasons, but it also deters one from being fully immersed in this overbearing tale of historical reflection.
Criterion Collection Spine #234
(Foreign language film)
Possibly the strangest take on the Peter Pan story ever told ... complete with Nazis, perverse sexuality, SYMBOLISM, and an ear piercing scream that can shatter glass!
Movies like The Tin Drum are a perfect example why I try to regularly add Criterion titles into my watchlist, otherwise I may have never come across this quirky German language historical fantasy epic.
The story follows the life of a very rebellious little boy named Oskar Matzerath, who right from birth is so turned off by the injustice of the world, and wants to return to his mother's womb, but it is too late since the cord has been cut.
When Oskar turns three at…
My overwhelming takeaway from this is that having a tin drum seems like a hell of a time. This kid really loved his tin drum and it got him through the rise of fascism (and beyond). It looks like a fun affect to have and it looks like it would add joy to my life.
It also seems to be a metaphor for following your own beat while society goes down the drain. this would be aided if the kid was not supremely annoying and smothered with yet more affects. He can break glass with his voice? I’m still not sure why and I don’t really want to spend the mental time unpicking potential symbolism.
To return to the repetitive…
I didn't really get what The Tin Drum was trying to achieve. It ultimately feels to me like a pointless exercise, just a work of dramatic irony and magical realism set against a historical backdrop, but without much more beyond its quirks. I enjoyed some of the dark humour and funny moments, but I don't really know what value the film has beyond that.
The Tin Drum works best in its bizarre, comedic set-pieces. It is a work of stylistic excess and when it plays with form it does conjure up some startling imagery. There are plenty of transgressive elements too, but they don't seem to have purpose. All the sex and peculiar family arrangements feel more like an indulgent…
Ah, little Oskar, we meet again. Oskar, like a malevolent Peter Pan or a demonic cherub, your star seems to have faded over the years but not to me, you still shine as brightly as ever.
Oskar doesn't like the look of the adult world so he refuses to grow up as he lives through the rise of Hitler and WWII. And he inadvertently, or perhaps purposely, causes mayhem and death to those around him, as he uses his tin drum and piercing, glass-shattering scream to get his own way.
This was the first film I saw that really made me realise there was a different way of telling stories, that you could make the horrible and grotesque funny, that took me to a place of blackly comic magical realism which I was very comfortable in.
I still love it.
