Product Details

• Actors: David Bennent, Mario Adorf, Angela Winkler, Katharina Thalbach, Daniel Olbrychski
• Directors: Volker Schlöndorff
• Writers: Volker Schlöndorff, Franz Seitz, Günter Grass, Jean-Claude Carrière
• Producers: Anatole Dauman, Eberhard Junkersdorf, Franz Seitz
• Format: PAL
• Language: German, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Russian
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Run Time: 142 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004CQ40
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,419 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing!, November 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Tin Drum [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I saw this movie back in 1983. I was only 9 years old but the movie to this day left an indelible impression on me. It was sad, yet humorous. Some parts make you go a little bug-eyed but that's all part of the surrealism of this movie. The young actor who played Oskar was amazing. Obviously you could tell he was just a child but I could actually see him as an adult as the movie goes on. I'm not in the habit of seeing foreign language films. In fact, I can honestly say that I've seen only a handful of them. This was my first German language film and I can safely say it was my favorite. Buy this video. You will not regret it. Its that amazing.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Allegory of Germany, December 21, 2000

By 

Corky Cotrell (San Antonio, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tin Drum [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Schlondorff brought a superb cast together to tell the story of Oskar, who ceases to grow beyond his three year old size; a symbolic representation of Germany in the twentieth century. Oskar's mother is courted by a German and a Pole. Gunther Grass's allegorical solution to the wrenching of national borders and ethnic shuffling brought about by World War I is to show the mother, unable to choose between her lovers, choosing them both. One becomes the father of Oskar. Which one? Does it matter? Thus Oskar arrives amidst the confusion of the twenties, only to witness the degradation of the homeland by revolution, runaway inflation and finally, the steady growth of National Socialism through the thirties. Oskar mirrors the turmoil of Germany's struggle of the twentieth century, unable to free itself from its own dream of Teutonic superiority, unable to find peace in the national soul. View this work with an eye to the inadequacies of your own country and begin to see Gunter Grass's dilemma with his.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Totally Recommended Piece Of Work, June 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Tin Drum (DVD)

I've watched the Tin Drum several times, and have learned new things with each viewing. I own the VHS and the DVD version. The DVD is superior because it offers a behind the scenes feature, and also a Director's Commentary from Director Volker Schlondorff which is very good. The story deals with a little boy named Oskar who decides on his third birthday after receiving a tin drum, to stop physically growing. There's much more to the plot, but that's just the gist of it. Fine acting by the entire cast also. A movie that should be seen.