Book and DVD both worth having
I read the book two weeks ago and have just viewed the Criterion Collection DVD. I found the book to be complex, rich, insightful, puzzling, and surreal. I loved it. This film comes as close as any film could to the spirit of the novel and still be under 3 hours long.
Oskar is born to three parents who, like the Gdansk they live in, represent 3 ethnic groups: Pole, Kashubian, and German. He is fully conscious at birth and is presented with two paths for his life - one as a shopkeeper and one as a musician. While the people of 1930's Gdansk/Danzig feel forced to choose ethnic sides and mundane occupations, Oskar rejects the "stupid" adult world. He stops growing and learns to assert some control over adults through his drumming and vocal talents.
One of my favorite sections of the book is when he musically subverts a large Nazi rally. Not only was this well done in the movie but was worked into a bonus feature that had Grass reading the book chapter while we watch the...
Amazing!
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.
An Allegory of Germany
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...
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