The Image of Independence Seen in a Silver Screen Boy

Asahi Shimbun Morning Edition, April 10, 1999

“Why did you give birth to me?” a thirty-year-old male patient furiously confronted his mother. It was a form of dependency, blaming his miserable, unfulfilled life on his parents. The mother-child relationship is a constant source of stress until the child truly becomes independent. What’s more, the child has no way of knowing for certain whether the woman who gave birth to them is truly their biological mother.

There is a film that presents a shocking image: a baby who possesses self-awareness even in the womb is born into the world through the birth canal. The moment the baby emerges, it instantly recognizes its mother. This is The Tin Drum (1979), a Franco-German co-production.

The story is set in Danzig, Poland (modern-day Gdańsk, birthplace of the Solidarity movement) during the 1920s and 30s, a period plagued by the storm of fascism. The protagonist is a boy named Oskar. His father cozies up to the Nazis, while his mother carries on an affair with her brother-in-law, who works at the Polish Post Office—a center of resistance.

Driven by despair, Oskar chooses to stop growing at the age of three. Though his body remains childlike, his mind ages with time. He channels his rage into beating his tin drum and displays a supernatural ability to shatter glass with his shrieks. After his mother dies, he leaves home and joins a troupe of dwarfs in a circus, even performing for German troops on the front lines.

Eventually, the German army is defeated, and Oskar’s father dies. On the day of his father's funeral, the 21-year-old Oskar throws his tin drum into the grave and grants himself permission to grow physically.

This film tells the story of one of the 20th century’s greatest tragedies—Nazism’s oppression of the Polish people—through Oskar’s eyes. Despite its comical tone, the film conveys that war and invasion are major sources of human stress. At the same time, it seems to express that true growth and development cannot occur while one remains under the influence of one’s parents.

The original novel by Günter Grass, published in 1959, sparked intense debate. It took 20 years for the story to be adapted into a film, which went on to win an Oscar. The journey of German intellectuals in coming to terms with Nazism was anything but smooth.