UNLIMITED STREAMING
WITH PRIME VIDEO
TRY 30-DAY TRIAL
Home > Drama >

The Tin Drum

The Tin Drum (1980)

April. 11,1980
|
7.5
|
R
| Drama History War

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.

...

Watch Trailer

Cast

Similar titles

Reviews

Vashirdfel
1980/04/11

Simply A Masterpiece

More
Afouotos
1980/04/12

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

More
Humaira Grant
1980/04/13

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

More
Cristal
1980/04/14

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

More
Kirpianuscus
1980/04/15

for a reader of the novel, the film of Volker Schlondorff is the expected adaptation. not the best, not the memorable. only the adaptation who can be the reasonable answer to the large circle of supposition about the events and characters and the dramatic adventures of Oskar. because, off course, it is the film of David Bennent. but, in same measure, it is not only a good adaptation but the chance to admire beautiful performances. for me- Charles Aznavour and Daniel Olbrychsky are the revelations. the cut of the end is, in same measure, a wise decision. because , like each adaptation, "The Tin Drum" is the start point to discover the universe of one of the most impressive novels of the XX century. like a key to the world imagined by Gunther Grass and, for many of his lines, more real than the life itself.

More
Horst in Translation ([email protected])
1980/04/16

"Die Blechtrommel" or "The Tin Drum" is a German movie from over 35 years ago that managed to win an Academy Award in the Foreign Language Feature category as well as winning the Palme d'Or in Cannes. I cannot really see why though. I watched the director's cut of this film and it runs for almost 2 hours and 45 minutes. Certainly a case of quantity over quality here. David Bennent was actually a good choice for the main character as his face was truly memorable. However, the solid acting by him and established actors like Adorf, Winkler, Olbrychski and the young Katharina Thalbach was not enough to make up for the flaws that this film has.Occasionall scenes with soldiers or speeches by Hitler and other Nazi officials are not enough to make a film a convincing political/war movie. And apart from that, the stories were simply really more absurd than interesting. This goes for the main character's mother having several men at the same time or at the depiction of pedophilia later on, which wasn't even shown as something bad here. Maybe the reason is because this film is so strictly against Hitler, his politics and World War II, so pedophilia something bad that even the Nazis despised was not depicted as really evil for that reason here. But the worst aspect was probably the storyline that the boy stopped growing because he decided to do so. Does it make sense that he did not want to be like adults in this world? Maybe. But don't all kids would like to stay young at some point? Why can't they do it? Complete nonsense rally. The inclusion of dwarf people that apparently made the same decision was really the negative highlight for this plot. I am not sure to what extent this film is based on Nobel Prize winner Günter Grass' work and how close Schlöndorff stayed to the original, but in any case I cannot say this was a successful film adaptation. It's not a great family movie, not a great war movie, not a great political thriller and it's also not worth watching for the historic context. Maybe it could be considered fantasy. But if you hear about a fantasy movie about Hitler, you knew you're in for something that is guilty pleasure material at best. This one here is not. It's just bad. Not recommended and certainly one of the worst Foreign Language Film winners in Oscar history. Also they could have kept this easily at around 100 minutes without losing any of the film's value. So many unnecessary scenes. But I guess they wanted to go for bloated here for whatever reason.

More
Bob Taylor
1980/04/17

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.

More
gizmomogwai
1980/04/18

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.

More