Die Blechtrommel

The Tin Drum (W. Germany - France)

By VARIETY STAFF

Read other reviews about this film

Powered By

Seitz/Bioskop/Artemis/Hallelujah/GGB/Argo. Director Volker Schlondorff; Producer Franz Seitz; Screenplay Jean-Claude Carriere, Volker Schloendorff, Franz Seitz, Guenter Grass; Camera Igor Luther; Editor Suzanne Baron; Music Friedrich Meyer; Art Director Nicos Perakis
 
Mario Adorf
Angela Winkler
David Bennent
Daniel Olbrychski
Katharina Thalbach
Heinz Bennent
 

This two-and-a-half-hour adaptation of Guenter Grass' world-renowned novel, The Tin Drum, was made by the best craftsman on the German film scene, Volker Schloendorff, and produced at a circa $4 million budget by vet producer Franz Seitz. It was lensed partially in Poland (also in France and Yugoslavia, as well as West Germany) to fit the novel's Danzig character and adheres to the book more than enough not to disappoint avid readers of the bestseller.

The Tin Drum (published 1959) is a complex, 'free association' novel, strongly anti-religious and (in a positive sense) anti-political; it is also humorous and absurd, as well as being historical and metaphoric. In short, a mud-sling at the beloved Bildungsroman in classic German literature.

This is the tale of a Tiny Tim who is a Jack the Giant Killer at the same time. Even before his birth, Oskar Matzerath in his mother's womb realizes he has special gifts. One is breaking glass with his voice; another is the decision at three years of age not to grow another centimeter. Because of his stunted growth, he can crawl under tables and skirts to watch, with sardonic eye, the lies and hypocrasies about him.

This is a chronicle on the history of Germany from the beginning of this century (the film's introductory part before Oskar is born) up to nearly the present day, i.e. 1959 (the final chapters of the book are excluded), with a special emphasis on the city of Danzig where Poles and Germans were constantly in strife. Most of all, it's about that social and political phenomenon known as Nazism.

Several scenes in Tin Drum are eye-catchers. The attack on the Danzig Post Office where Polish Resistance fighters have banded together is expertly handled, as well as other crowd scenes, particularly one about a Nazi Party Day during which Oskar's drum puts everything out-of-step.

As Oskar, David Bennet (a boy of 12 hindered in his own growth, so that he appears to be about five years old) has the eyes and the acting talent to carry some scenes remarkably well, but he is not the insatiable wallower in sex and religious mysticism that Grass intended.

1979: Best Foreign Language Film

(Color) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1979. Running time: 150 MIN.