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CibbuanoThe Tin Drum
June 19th 2006 10:01
Those crazy Germans! This controversial film still manages to shock today with it's visceral and taboo mixture of sex and abject disgust. There has been some division over exactly what the film is saying, but there is certainly no doubt that it says something (duh!). Interpretation is too often taken as gospel, and various takes are absolutely possible in a film as open-ended as this.
Oskar (Bennent) is a little boy who, at the age of 3, decides that he doesn't want to grow any more. This, coupled with a glass-shattering scream, makes Oskar a unique eyewitness to the growing Nazi regime and World War 2. Oskar psychologically matures as the film goes on, but remains forever in the body of a 3 year old; a self-imposed freakishness that ends up being his own undoing. Oskar bangs his tin drum throughout the film, a little boy tyrant who will not be silenced by any authority, and he manipulates those around him accordingly. Exactly what this says about the rise of Nazism is up for interpretation, and I don't think it's essential to prescribe to the commonly-held view that Oskar is taking a stand against the inhumanity of fascism. His disruption of a Nazi rally may point to this, but it shouldn't be forgotten that he later joins the Nazis, several years down the track, and that his screaming and drum-banging is a form of tyranny in itself. And then there's the influence he passes on to the next generation. Anyhow, I delve into the plot too much.
There's lots of that dark quirkiness that European films love to indulge in, and it dawdles a bit here and there, seeming overlong as a result. I felt sick to my stomach at the scenes of raw fish consumption and eel-'fishing', and the film really taps into a feeling of abjection with its use of fluids, food and sex. The cast are all spot on, especially young David Bennent, who plays the precocious three-year old with an unnerving glare.
It's a film worth seeing, especially for a German perspective on Nazism. All too often we see the Jews as the sole victims of the regime, this film is keen to remind us of the effects of the Nazis on the (albeit debatably) unwitting Germans themselves. It's not a fast-paced film, as is the case with a lot of non-Hollywood films, but it's quite striking and memorable, and it made me think.
TRIVIA: 'The Tin Drum' (1979) was banned in America for around 15 years. I guess even thirty to fifty years down the track, the West still didn't care to see their past enemies humanised via film.
The Tin Drum (1979)
Oskar (Bennent) is a little boy who, at the age of 3, decides that he doesn't want to grow any more. This, coupled with a glass-shattering scream, makes Oskar a unique eyewitness to the growing Nazi regime and World War 2. Oskar psychologically matures as the film goes on, but remains forever in the body of a 3 year old; a self-imposed freakishness that ends up being his own undoing. Oskar bangs his tin drum throughout the film, a little boy tyrant who will not be silenced by any authority, and he manipulates those around him accordingly. Exactly what this says about the rise of Nazism is up for interpretation, and I don't think it's essential to prescribe to the commonly-held view that Oskar is taking a stand against the inhumanity of fascism. His disruption of a Nazi rally may point to this, but it shouldn't be forgotten that he later joins the Nazis, several years down the track, and that his screaming and drum-banging is a form of tyranny in itself. And then there's the influence he passes on to the next generation. Anyhow, I delve into the plot too much.
There's lots of that dark quirkiness that European films love to indulge in, and it dawdles a bit here and there, seeming overlong as a result. I felt sick to my stomach at the scenes of raw fish consumption and eel-'fishing', and the film really taps into a feeling of abjection with its use of fluids, food and sex. The cast are all spot on, especially young David Bennent, who plays the precocious three-year old with an unnerving glare.
It's a film worth seeing, especially for a German perspective on Nazism. All too often we see the Jews as the sole victims of the regime, this film is keen to remind us of the effects of the Nazis on the (albeit debatably) unwitting Germans themselves. It's not a fast-paced film, as is the case with a lot of non-Hollywood films, but it's quite striking and memorable, and it made me think.
TRIVIA: 'The Tin Drum' (1979) was banned in America for around 15 years. I guess even thirty to fifty years down the track, the West still didn't care to see their past enemies humanised via film.
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