Movie · 1979 · Drama, History, War · 2h 42m · R · German
Curator score: 5.9/10 (50.1K ratings)
A savage, sweeping epic of society in chaos.
Overview
In 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.
Mario Adorf, Angela Winkler, David Bennent, Katharina Thalbach, Daniel Olbrychski, Tina Engel, Berta Drews, Roland Teubner, Tadeusz Kunikowski, Andréa Ferréol, Heinz Bennent, Ilse Pagé, Werner Rehm, Käte Jaenicke, Otto Sander, Charles Aznavour, Fritz Hakl, Mariella Oliveri, Ernst Jacobi, Henning Schlüter
Where to watch
Max
Curator Review
Verdict
A ferociously strange anti-fascist allegory that turns history into grotesque satire, black comedy, and body horror. It’s provocative, messy, and often unforgettable, with a central performance that gives the film its eerie power.
Best for
Viewers who like surreal historical dramas
Fans of dark satire and grotesque black comedy
People interested in anti-fascist allegory
Audiences open to disturbing, morally ambiguous cinema
Criterion-style international classics
Skip if
You want a straightforward World War II drama
You’re sensitive to sexual content involving minors or taboo material
You prefer emotionally tidy, plot-driven storytelling
You dislike surrealism, symbolism, or abrasive tonal shifts
Overview
The Tin Drum is one of those films that feels less like a historical drama than a fever dream about Europe’s moral collapse. It follows Oskar, a child who refuses to grow, but the film is really about denial, complicity, and the grotesque ways ordinary life mutates under fascism. Schlöndorff stages it with a mix of satire, nightmare imagery, and cruel humor that makes the whole thing feel both literary and deeply cinematic.
Worth noting
What lingers most is the film’s commitment to discomfort. It is funny in a nasty, almost indecent way, but it also keeps circling corruption, family rot, sexual taboo, and the rise of Nazism with real force. The result is uneven by design, yet its strangeness is exactly what makes it memorable.
Bottom line
This is not an easy recommendation, and it is not meant to be. But for viewers who want a major European art film that refuses to behave, it remains a singular experience: provocative, ugly, brilliant in flashes, and impossible to mistake for anything else.
Top Letterboxd reviews
russman (3.5★) · 518 likes
For someone drumming for all those years, you'd think he'd be a little more talented.
Sally Jane Black · 301 likes
There are three perfect moments in this film:
The first is when Oskar's father Alfred picks up a potato and speaks lovingly of its tumescence. In or out of context, this is so ridiculous and bizarre that it deserves to be heralded as one of the best moments in film, ever. It serves as a minor note of characterization--he follows it up by yelling at Oskar for wanting to read and write, suggesting where his priorities lie--but mostly, it's a… more
davidehrlich (4★) · 162 likes
Restored cut.
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON ÷ Emir Kusturica's UNDERGROUND + mad pubic hair and sexual taboo = THE TIN DRUM. what a beguiling film... hard to imagine such a resolutely strange, morally ambiguous epic winning an academy award in this day and age. David Bennent's alien embodiment of Oskar is one of the cinema's great child performances, embarrassing the precocious antics seen in infinitely easier fare like BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD. will review in full for Criterion Corner soon.
chavel (2★) · 152 likes
Famous for splitting the 1979 Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival with the Coppola masterpiece "Apocalypse Now," alas, two winners. This 142-minute sorrow and the pity fantasy made from Germany has Oskar a.k.a. Urchin Forrest Gump of Poland (David Bennent, who was 12 when he shot this) as a 3-year old who decides during the Nazi rise that he will never grow and remain a child. Perpetually he bangs his drum in anger and revolt. His other habit is… more Famous for splitting the 1979 Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival with the Coppola masterpiece "Apocalypse Now," alas, two winners. This 142-minute sorrow and the pity fantasy made from Germany has Oskar a.k.a. Urchin Forrest Gump of Poland (David Bennent, who was 12 when he shot this) as a 3-year old who decides during the Nazi rise that he will never grow and remain a child. Perpetually he bangs his drum in anger and revolt. His other habit is… more
LeSchroeck (4★) · 109 likes
Gesehen in der restaurierten Fassung. Vergessen wie irre, schwitzig, geil, ätzend und dreckig dieser Film doch eigentlich ist - oder schon immer war. Nur ist der Pferdekopf voller Aale jetzt noch ein Spur glitschiger, verfaulter, ekelerregender - und die Kotze von Angela Winkler (endlich habe ich den Erinnerungsanker, den ich nach „Dark“ so dringend gesucht habe) eine gut aufgelöste Ecke bröckeliger. Leider handelt es sich bei der Restaurierung „nur“ um die 142-Minütige Kinofassung, was ich ein klein wenig schade finde.… more Gesehen in der restaurierten Fassung. Vergessen wie irre, schwitzig, geil, ätzend und dreckig dieser Film doch eigentlich ist - oder schon immer war. Nur ist der Pferdekopf voller Aale jetzt noch ein Spur glitschiger, verfaulter, ekelerregender - und die Kotze von Angela Winkler (endlich habe ich den Erinnerungsanker, den ich nach „Dark“ so dringend gesucht habe) eine gut aufgelöste Ecke bröckeliger. Leider handelt es sich bei der Restaurierung „nur“ um die 142-Minütige Kinofassung, was ich ein klein wenig schade finde.… more