The Tin Drum

Starring:Mario Adorf, Angela Winkler, David Bennent, Katharina Thalbach, Daniel Olbrychski, Tina Engel, Berta Drews, Roland Teubner, Tadeusz Kunikowski, AndrÃ©a FerrÃ©ol, Heinz Bennent, Ilse PagÃ©, Werner Rehm, KÃ¤te Jaenicke, Helmut Brasch, Otto Sander, Wigand Witting, Mariella Oliveri, Fritz Hakl, Emil Feist
Director: Volker SchlÃ¶ndorff
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

This Oscar-winning adaptation of Günter Grass's novel is an absurdist fantasy about a little German boy (David Bennent) who wills himself at the age of three not to grow up in protest of the Nazi regime. Made unnecessarily notorious in recent years due to overzealous censors in some parts of the United States, the film is more startling and surreal than obscene. Bennent is very good, and while the 1979 film doesn't meet the high standards of the best work from the then-renaissance of German film, it has a special place in the hearts of many who saw it upon its release. Directed by Volker Schlöndorff (The Handmaid's Tale). --Tom Keogh

Description

Based on the classic novel by Gunter Grass, this drama of a young boy who beats a tin drum to combat his feelings of desperation and anger during the rise of the Third Reich is as dark and disturbing as it is utterly compelling. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.

Customer Reviews:

Nightmarish........2007-04-10

I will not pretend that I understood this on a symbolic level. I did not. I cannot say that the movie was a pleasure to watch. It was not. But it was a series of absolutely unforgettable images. Akin to a nightmare. It was all that stuff that SNL skits mock about German film. You may need to be something of a stoic to sit it through; my boyfriend insists it was the worst torture he's ever endured on screen.

An Adult Locked Inside a Child's Body with a Tin Drum.......2007-03-12

What a disturbing, unpleasant and often disgusting this Palm D' Or and Oscar Winner for the Best Foreign Language Film is. Perhaps it is appropriate given a bizarre look at the history of Germany from the World War 1 through the rise of the Nazis as seen by a strange child who refused to grow at his third Birthday. Little Oscar symbolized a conscience of the citizens of Danzig when the Nazis are in power and the war rages. I am expected to sympathize with Oscar because he supposedly understands better than any adult around him what the chaos of 1920s would bring to life to Germany and to the world in 1930s but I simply can't. For me, Oscar is the scariest and creepiest little creature with the empty and cold eyes of young Alex de Large whose expressing his outrage by constant pounding on his toy tin drum and screaming with window-shattering voice only annoyed me. As the years pass, Oscar turned into a teenager who became naturally interested in girls but was trapped in a little boy's body, which contributed to some of most disturbing and repulsing scenes in films that I've ever seen and I am a quite open-minded and tolerant moviegoer. The movie's imagery is powerful and I guess the filmmaker drove his point across but for me, "The Tin Drum" is too cold to genially touch me and too unpleasant to like it.

Exquisite but degrading.......2006-05-18

At times exquisitely filmed, at times hideous to watch; there were several moments when I attempted to look away from the film, as the material on the screen was too repulsive to watch. To know that such acts of despair and horror actually might exist is enough to throw one into a fright of existential depression. In particular, the one scene when one of the husbands grips the decapitated head of a boar, and pulls still-alive wriggling eels out from its slimy mouth, and then subsequentely serves the eels for breakfast the next morning. Probably not a film I will watch again, yet glad to have been through the experience. I do hope they do not make more films like this though.

Absolutely the WORST WWII oriented movie ever made........2006-02-16

I had to type this review to hopefully prevent others from making the mistake of buying or watching this "movie." To all the intellectually enlighted who gave it positive and glowing reviews, I can only say you must also like Yoko Ono music and abstract art. This is not a war movie or a social commentary whatsoever, it's garbage. I read the book years ago and thought the book was kinda' goofy, but the movie's off-the-chart bad. If you want to watch a kid have sex with ladies, watch people vomit, watch the seemingly constant need to urinate in glorious color just about everywhere every five minutes, and listen to a kid scream a lot for no apparent reason, then get his father killed, also seemingly for no good reason, this is your movie. Oh, and let's not forget the decapitated horse head filled with eels - man, coulda' lived without that image all day. Overall, WORST MOVIE EVER MADE DEALING WITH THE THIRD REICH. If you want an excellent older German anti-war movie which actually makes sense, buy "THE BRIDGE", which I cannot believe has not been remade by a major studio yet.

The Tin Drum is a good choice for viewing European filmmaking.........2005-10-26

The movie is true to Gunther Grass' book on a little boy that refuses to grow up after witnessing the foibles of the adults in his life. A different filmmaking style makes this a compelling choice if you are a fan of European and non-Hollywood methods of moviemaking.

Average customer rating:

Nightmarish.
An Adult Locked Inside a Child's Body with a Tin Drum
Exquisite but degrading
Absolutely the WORST WWII oriented movie ever made.
The Tin Drum is a good choice for viewing European filmmaking..

The Tin Drum [Region 2]
Starring: Mario Adorf , Angela Winkler , David Bennent , Katharina Thalbach , and Daniel Olbrychski
Director: Volker Schlöndorff
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Fassbinder's BRD Trilogy (The Marriage of Maria Braun / Veronika Voss / Lola) - Criterion Collection
Shoot the Piano Player - Criterion Collection
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum - Criterion Collection
Viridiana - Criterion Collection
Amarcord (Criterion Collection)

ASIN: B00004T8EJ

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Nightmarish........2007-04-10

An Adult Locked Inside a Child's Body with a Tin Drum.......2007-03-12

Exquisite but degrading.......2006-05-18

Absolutely the WORST WWII oriented movie ever made........2006-02-16

The Tin Drum is a good choice for viewing European filmmaking.........2005-10-26

Average customer rating:

Nightmarish.
An Adult Locked Inside a Child's Body with a Tin Drum
Exquisite but degrading
Absolutely the WORST WWII oriented movie ever made.
The Tin Drum is a good choice for viewing European filmmaking..

The Tin Drum
Starring: Mario Adorf , Angela Winkler , David Bennent , Katharina Thalbach , and Daniel Olbrychski
Director: Volker Schlöndorff
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Period Piece | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

International | Military & War | Genres | DVD | Video

World War II | Military & War | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video

( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Fassbinder's BRD Trilogy (The Marriage of Maria Braun / Veronika Voss / Lola) - Criterion Collection
Shoot the Piano Player - Criterion Collection
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum - Criterion Collection
Viridiana - Criterion Collection
Amarcord (Criterion Collection)

ASIN: B00000I4PO
Release Date: 1999-02-16

Amazon.com

Description

Customer Reviews:

Nightmarish........2007-04-10

An Adult Locked Inside a Child's Body with a Tin Drum.......2007-03-12

Exquisite but degrading.......2006-05-18

Absolutely the WORST WWII oriented movie ever made........2006-02-16

The Tin Drum is a good choice for viewing European filmmaking.........2005-10-26

Average customer rating:

The Tin Drum [Region 2]
Starring: Mario Adorf , Angela Winkler , David Bennent , Katharina Thalbach , and Daniel Olbrychski
Director: Volker Schlöndorff
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B0000DZRR5

The Tin Drum ~ Original Theatrical Release [Import, All-region] (Dvd)

Average customer rating:

The Tin Drum ~ Original Theatrical Release [Import, All-region] (Dvd)
Director: Volker Schlöndorff
Manufacturer: PS KR
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

World War II | Military & War | Genres | DVD | Video

The Tin Drum - Criterion Collection
Equus
Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow (Remastered Edition)
1900 (Special Collector's Edition)
The Conformist (Extended Edition)

Product Features:

Academy Award Winner Best Foreign Language Film 1979
Curiously, if not strangely, banned in many countries for sexuality when originally released. This is the originally theatrical release as envisioned by the director.
"...a fantastic epic children's drama that is strictly for select adult audiences. It is at once barbaric, coolly intellectual and deeply stirring." BOX OFFICE
Import from Korea made for the USA/Canada marketplace (NTSC, All-Region)
Supplemental video; behind-the-scenes feature; photographs, storyboards; and much more!

ASIN: B000MVMXCK

Product Description

Danzig, Germany, 1924. Oskar Matzerath is born with an intellect beyond his infancy. As he witnesses the hypocrisy of adulthood and the irresponsibility of society, Oskar rejects both, and, at his third birthday, refuses to grow older. Caught in a baffling state of perpetual childhood, Oskar lashes out at all he surveys with piercing screams and frantic poundings on his tin drum, while the unheeding, chaotic world marches onward to the madness and folly of World War II. Honored with the Palme dOr at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival and the 1979 Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language film, Volker Schlöndorffs The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel) is a truly visionary adaptation of Nobel laureate Günter Grass acclaimed novel, an unforgettable fantasia of surreal imagery, striking eroticism, and unflinching satire.

Average customer rating:

Nightmarish.
An Adult Locked Inside a Child's Body with a Tin Drum
Exquisite but degrading
Absolutely the WORST WWII oriented movie ever made.
The Tin Drum is a good choice for viewing European filmmaking..

The Tin Drum [Region 2]
Starring: Mario Adorf , Angela Winkler , David Bennent , Katharina Thalbach , and Daniel Olbrychski
Director: Volker Schlöndorff
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Fassbinder's BRD Trilogy (The Marriage of Maria Braun / Veronika Voss / Lola) - Criterion Collection
Shoot the Piano Player - Criterion Collection
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum - Criterion Collection
Viridiana - Criterion Collection
Amarcord (Criterion Collection)

ASIN: B00005QT08

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Nightmarish........2007-04-10

An Adult Locked Inside a Child's Body with a Tin Drum.......2007-03-12

Exquisite but degrading.......2006-05-18

Absolutely the WORST WWII oriented movie ever made........2006-02-16

The Tin Drum is a good choice for viewing European filmmaking.........2005-10-26

The Tin Drum [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ]

Average customer rating:

The Tin Drum [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ]

Manufacturer: Filmax
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Product Description

Spain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. Languages: o Spanish (subtitles) o English (Dolby Digital 2.0) o Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0) Synopsis: Novelist Günter Grass assisted in this brilliant film adaptation of his groundbreaking novel, which depicts the significant events in German history since the turn of the century as seen through the eyes of a bizarre child. In this allegorical film, a three-year-old boy observes the hypocrisy of the adult world and decides to remain a child forever by not growing any taller. His primary efforts to communicate consist of glass-shattering screams and banging on his tin drum. But as this unusual lad matures, and the events leading up to the onslaught of Nazism come to a head, he proves to have a keener perception of life than those around him. - In Volker Schlondorff's award-winning adaptation of Nobel Prize-winner Gunter Grass' allegorical novel, David Bennent plays Oskar, the young son of a German rural family, circa 1925. On his third birthday, Oskar receives a shiny new tin drum. At this point, rather than mature into one of the miserable specimens of grown-up humanity that he sees around him, he vows never to get any older or any bigger. Whenever the world around him becomes too much to bear, the boy begins to hammer on his drum; should anyone try to take the toy away from him, he emits an ear-piercing scream that literally shatters glass. As Germany goes to hell during the 1930s and 1940s, the never-ageing Oskar continues savagely beating his drum, serving as the angry conscience of a world gone mad. Filled to overflowing with unforgettable sequences, The Tin Drum was one of the most financially successful German films of the 1970s and won the 1979 Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Special Features: o Biographies o Filmographies o Interactive Menu o Scene Access

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