The Tin Drum

Ask any director and they will tell you (if they’re being honest) that the biggest part of their job is casting the right people to play the right part. When it came to finding the right leading man for his 1979 surrealistic masterpiece, The Tin Drum, director Volker Schlöndorff was absolutely blessed to find David Bennent to play the part of Oskar Matzerath. Based on the novel by Günter Grass, the film tells the story of a boy who, when he discovers just how silly the world of adults can be, decides he will never grow up past the age of three…at least physically. Mentally he surpasses the adults that surround him while emotionally he…well, let’s just say he communicates his emotions through a tin drum that never leaves his side and there are times, especially when he is angry, that he’d give Keith Moon a run for his money.  As strange as it is – and it’s really, really strange – there is more to The Tin Drum than just sheer weirdness. Like Grass before him, Schlöndorff uses this decidedly strange tale to comment on German life during the 1920s and 30s in vibrant and memorable ways.