Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum)

Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum) (1979)

  • 78% of critics liked it
    (18 reviews)

  • 84% of users liked it
    (6,860 ratings)

In Volker Schlöndorff's award-winning adaptation of Nobel Prize winner Günter 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… More

Play Trailer

R,
Directed By
Written By
Jean-Claude Carriere
Genres
Art House & International, Drama
In Theaters
May 3, 1979 Wide
Kinowelt

Critic Reviews

  • R. Emmet Sweeney, Time Out New York

    Schlöndorff has a tendency to sketch the rest of the cast as simple grotesques or symbols of decadence that are unconvincingly humanized in the final third.

  • Sarah Boslaugh, PopMatters

    If ever [the characters in] a film embodied Hannah Arendt's principle of "the banality of evil", it's The Tin Drum...

  • Budd Wilkins, Slant Magazine

    Criterion's release of Volker Schlöndorff's director's cut is occasion enough to bang The Tin Drum loudly. It doesn't hurt that they've provided an impressive new transfer and some choice new extras to round out the package.

  • Eric Melin, Scene-Stealers.com

    There are many themes running through The Tin Drum: resistance against an unkind world, the need for acceptance, the horrors of romance and war, and the final idea that growth is inevitable and unfortunately, necessary.

  • Ela Bittencourt, Slant Magazine

    In Volker Schlöndorff's restored version of his 1979 classic, Oskar Matzerath emerges as a tragic anti-hero, whose lustful imagination and prodigious magical gifts can't shield him from the juggernaut of war.

Read all 12 critic reviews

See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

  • Greg S


    A little German boy decides to stop growing up at 3 and a half years old, then watches as Hitler rises to power. A classic comic nightmare about "little people's" acquiescence to Nazism.

  • Lucas M


    Darkly humor, surrealism and controversial, Die Blechtrommel is a dazzing, entertaning and unique film that bring to us a great direction, just like the screenplay and David Bennent's performance. One of the best films that I ever saw and also one of the most shocking. Fresh.

  • Pierluigi P


    Mischievous, visually stunning, hilarious and compelling. quite an achievement adapting GÃ 1/4nter Grass' novel.

  • Jan Marc M


    Disturbing and notorious, The Tin Drum introduces a three-year-old who opted to stay in infancy because of disenchantment with maturity. A controversial Cannes Film Festival Golden Palm recipient that covers the social, the political, and the historical in World War II, Germany and… More

  • Anthony L


    Absurd but beautiful. Wonderfully directed by Schlondorff and an amazing turn from a young David Bennent. It?s a tough one to explain so I recommend you watch it!

Read all 13 featured audience ratings

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Cast

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