The Tin Drum: Volker Schlöndorff

I write this review after having watched Volker Schlöndorff's The Tin Drum a second time. The first time that I watched this film was about two years ago. It was one of the first German films that I had ever seen and it made quite an impression on me. Now, in 2011, having had much more experience with not only German film, but European cinema in general, I feel that I am more capable of giving an informed opinion on this film. The Tin Drum is based off a novel of the same name by Günter Grass. It follows Oskar, a young boy living in the free city of Danzig around 1925. The film follows not only his life, but the turmoils of German history up to the end of World War Two and the Soviet invasion of Germany. The film is a fascinating oddity. Oskar, at the age of three, decides to stop growing because he is disgusted with humanity. So he throws himself down a flight of stairs, almost killing himself. This causes him to literally stay the same age for the next two decades. He soon discovers that he has a piercing shriek that can literally destroy any glass in a nearby radius. As he surveys the march of history and the rise of the Nazi Party, he becomes attached to a toy drum that he continues to beat all day long. As he gets older (while staying the same size) he leaves his home, joins a circus of midgets, becomes a Nazi celebrity, returns home, and watches most of his family get killed, raped, or tortured. I guess that the point of the film is that Oskar represents Germany and his refusal to grow represents the nation's refusal to mature after World War One. Some also say that Oskar represents a force of rebellion against Nazism and that he should be praised for this. But here is where my opinion begins to diverge. The first time that I saw the film, I considered Oskar a hero. The second time, I found him to be a spoiled brat who deserved to be savagely beaten. Also, upon a second viewing, I found that much of the symbolism was muddled and deliberately opaque. I had seen this film in the context of a German Cinema college class. So I asked my professor why the symbolism was so confusing. She responded that that was the point: it was supposed to be confusing. In my opinion, that isn't good enough. Roger Ebert once said that if you have to ask what something symbolizes, then it isn't actually a symbol. As a result, I can't help but view The Tin Drum as a lazy vehicle for half-baked metaphors. The fact that this tied Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, easily one of the GREATEST FILMS EVER MADE, for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, infuriates me. Don't get me wrong, The Tin Drum, despite my criticisms, is still one of the greatest German films of all time. But does it deserve to share the Palme with a film like Apocalypse Now? No. It's funny what a second viewing and two years worth of experience can do to somebody's opinion of a film, huh?

Score From Two Years Ago: 10/10
Revised Score: 8/10