Now I stand here to bluntly and quite harshly I have ever been to a movie and it is been adapted from a literary legacy of post war scenario of the same name, “The Tin Drum” by Günter Grass. While the infamous scene of the actor David Bennent who was 11 years old at the time the movie was made playing Oskar involving in oral sex and an intercourse scene which of course shocked me and left me as sick as possible, I was sincerely hoping that he is a grown up dwarf and as expected I was disappointed and angry too. But the problem started way before that.
Narrated in a shrill and creepy voice, the film starts with Oskar’s Grandmother Anna (played young Anna by Tina Engel and elderly by Berta Drews) protecting their grandfather while hiding in her four skirts from the police impregnates her too. If that is bizarre, then we see Anna’s daughter and Oskar’s mother Agnes (Angela Winkler) married to an older man than her, Alfred (Mario Adarf) without any difficulty sleeping with her cousin Jan (Daniel Olbrychski) who is polish. When Oskar pushes himself out of the womb not ready to face the world, the only thing which keeps him growing is his mother’s promise of getting him a tin drum on his third birthday. He becomes three and gets his tin drum which he plays irritatingly at times when peace is necessary. He sees the ugly world of his mother and how the noisy and corrupted world is. He decides not to grow and remain three. This is the magical realism style of the book and the movie adapts along with it. The film then takes on to boringly, disgustingly and shockingly explains the life of Oskar and his life of being of no growth, physically.
I had lots of problems with the film. For starters it is how insensitive and boorish the entire characters in it are. No one shows signs of love, affection or care at any moment. It in fact looked as a misanthropic movie. It is not that sociopaths wander but how cold and dark the characters are. They smile but it is not real. They cheer but it frightens us. There is no level of comfort whatsoever in any of the characters. Even Agnes’ and the sixteen year old Maria’s (Katharina Thalbach, who actually was twenty four when the movie was made) slight affection towards Oskar do not appear altruistic. The movie well before the shocking sexual scenes easily becomes creepy and sick. I am not being judgmental about looks but David Bennent’s expression and the character of Oskar scared me to hell. The evil eyes and the scream he shouts with his face and voice is so sinister, nightmarish and threatening. While it might be an accolade for the actor, it freaked me out for the entire film time. He rarely talks and when he does, we hope he remains calm and threaten us instead. The mood is dark and downing. In its mellow form of crawling pace of characters, it sickens us mainly due to the characters being insolent and cold. We see the toy shop owner Markus (Charles Aznavour) with an untold desire for Agnes during her Thursday visits leaving Oskar to him and passionately pursue her sexual desires with Jan. And when Agnes decides to eat tons of fish which she disgusts to punish herself of the sin, I lost it. Actually before that when the eel scene comes up and the cooking method after that, I wanted to throw up and switch off the DVD. I felt it is not right to write a review without seeing the whole movie. I even thought of opting for switching it off and not writing a review. I pulled myself back in very minimal hopes of redemption in the remaining film. It only got worse and I regretted watching the full movie.
Oskar remains three at fourteen and forthcoming ages. They do not answer whether his brain growth stays at age three too but his sexual tendencies aggravate to his age. I have no issues in portraying Taboo in the film. It is a happening and as long as the actors involved know about what they are getting into, it is fine. At the age of sixteen tendering to sexuality, no one is spared of it and I sincerely accept it. While they had the courtesy of involving the female counterpart Katharina Thalbach in this scene who was actually twenty four, knowledgeable to make her own decision and aware of it, how the parents or the director did not think of eleven year old Bennent? I got reminded of the character Elliot Stabler in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit saying this, “I think sex should be one of the best experiences in life, not one of the worst.” I cannot be a judge on worst or best in this case but I feel that as a kid, there are very high chances he was not aware of what exactly is happening out there and it is wrong. There is a reason for legal age.
I have not read the book and the film only made not to, but let me not conclude on it. The internal tangle of unknown trauma, emotion and the holocaust time period are sad and tragic. Director Volker Schlöndorff terrifies us in jarring fashion on kid rather on the situations that we along with those stern faced characters become rigid and numb being unmoved by the war crimes. I have said a movie bad, worse, sucked but I never have said that I hated one. I hated this movie and hope this be the first and last one to be so for me.
Narrated in a shrill and creepy voice, the film starts with Oskar’s Grandmother Anna (played young Anna by Tina Engel and elderly by Berta Drews) protecting their grandfather while hiding in her four skirts from the police impregnates her too. If that is bizarre, then we see Anna’s daughter and Oskar’s mother Agnes (Angela Winkler) married to an older man than her, Alfred (Mario Adarf) without any difficulty sleeping with her cousin Jan (Daniel Olbrychski) who is polish. When Oskar pushes himself out of the womb not ready to face the world, the only thing which keeps him growing is his mother’s promise of getting him a tin drum on his third birthday. He becomes three and gets his tin drum which he plays irritatingly at times when peace is necessary. He sees the ugly world of his mother and how the noisy and corrupted world is. He decides not to grow and remain three. This is the magical realism style of the book and the movie adapts along with it. The film then takes on to boringly, disgustingly and shockingly explains the life of Oskar and his life of being of no growth, physically.
I had lots of problems with the film. For starters it is how insensitive and boorish the entire characters in it are. No one shows signs of love, affection or care at any moment. It in fact looked as a misanthropic movie. It is not that sociopaths wander but how cold and dark the characters are. They smile but it is not real. They cheer but it frightens us. There is no level of comfort whatsoever in any of the characters. Even Agnes’ and the sixteen year old Maria’s (Katharina Thalbach, who actually was twenty four when the movie was made) slight affection towards Oskar do not appear altruistic. The movie well before the shocking sexual scenes easily becomes creepy and sick. I am not being judgmental about looks but David Bennent’s expression and the character of Oskar scared me to hell. The evil eyes and the scream he shouts with his face and voice is so sinister, nightmarish and threatening. While it might be an accolade for the actor, it freaked me out for the entire film time. He rarely talks and when he does, we hope he remains calm and threaten us instead. The mood is dark and downing. In its mellow form of crawling pace of characters, it sickens us mainly due to the characters being insolent and cold. We see the toy shop owner Markus (Charles Aznavour) with an untold desire for Agnes during her Thursday visits leaving Oskar to him and passionately pursue her sexual desires with Jan. And when Agnes decides to eat tons of fish which she disgusts to punish herself of the sin, I lost it. Actually before that when the eel scene comes up and the cooking method after that, I wanted to throw up and switch off the DVD. I felt it is not right to write a review without seeing the whole movie. I even thought of opting for switching it off and not writing a review. I pulled myself back in very minimal hopes of redemption in the remaining film. It only got worse and I regretted watching the full movie.
Oskar remains three at fourteen and forthcoming ages. They do not answer whether his brain growth stays at age three too but his sexual tendencies aggravate to his age. I have no issues in portraying Taboo in the film. It is a happening and as long as the actors involved know about what they are getting into, it is fine. At the age of sixteen tendering to sexuality, no one is spared of it and I sincerely accept it. While they had the courtesy of involving the female counterpart Katharina Thalbach in this scene who was actually twenty four, knowledgeable to make her own decision and aware of it, how the parents or the director did not think of eleven year old Bennent? I got reminded of the character Elliot Stabler in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit saying this, “I think sex should be one of the best experiences in life, not one of the worst.” I cannot be a judge on worst or best in this case but I feel that as a kid, there are very high chances he was not aware of what exactly is happening out there and it is wrong. There is a reason for legal age.
I have not read the book and the film only made not to, but let me not conclude on it. The internal tangle of unknown trauma, emotion and the holocaust time period are sad and tragic. Director Volker Schlöndorff terrifies us in jarring fashion on kid rather on the situations that we along with those stern faced characters become rigid and numb being unmoved by the war crimes. I have said a movie bad, worse, sucked but I never have said that I hated one. I hated this movie and hope this be the first and last one to be so for me.
2 comments:
Very strong words from you on a movie which is very unlikely of your reviews.Only thing i can suggest is DON'T shun the book based on the movie.This book is a creative masterpiece which exposes the double standards of adult life and in lot many ways convincingly looks into the dark pages of German History.Read the book only to book how better it is than the movie. :)
Believe Me, I did not want a movie to be hated :-) ! But yeah, I will not judge the book based on the movie. Let me know after you have watched and see whether you liked it or not.
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