The Tin Drum

Year: 1979
Genre: Family Drama/Black Comedy
Directed: Volker Schlondorff
Stars: David Bennent, Mario Adorf, Angela Winkler, Daniel Olbychski, Katharina Thalbach, Charles Anavour, Tina Engel, Berta Drews, Andrea Ferreol, Fritz Hakl
Production: Franz Seitz Filmproduktion

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 Flm 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.

Starchild: the early days

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.

Doesn't he just have a face you can trust?

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.

Yeah, it gets really uncomfortable right around here.

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.

Final Grade: B-