Live Long and Prosper

[uwe]

I just saw Tin Drum again - after years or a decade  of having seen it last.

What did you find so shocking about it, John? I guess it portrays both the ugliness and the attraction of adult life viewed from the eyes of a smart and not always friendly or compassionate child. The novel it is based on is regarded as the milestone piece of literature among German post-war prose.

[TBird1958]

My dear Mom gave me a copy of "The Tin Drum" I guess it's time I read it.......

[uwe]

It contains incessant adultry, sex with minors and midgets, sex scenes out on the field with people watching, sherbet being poured on a teenage girls primary sex organ in preparation of certain lewd acts, eels eating their way out of a chopped off horse's head, the siege of the Polish post office in Danzig (and the shooting of the surrendered defendants by the German attackers in violation of the Geneva Convention and the Hague Treaty on Land War) and a waltz drum beat sabotaging an open air Nazi convention with goose steps turning into waltz moves.

You should like it then.

[Dave W]

So it's just your average family-friendly movie then.

[TBird1958]

It contains incessant adultry, sex with minors and midgets, sex scenes out on the field with people watching, sherbet being poured on a teenage girls primary sex organ in preparation of certain lewd acts, eels eating their way out of a chopped off horse's head, the siege of the Polish post office in Danzig (and the shooting of the surrendered defendants by the German attackers in violation of the Geneva Convention and the Hague Treaty on Land War) and a waltz drum beat sabotaging an open air Nazi convention with goose steps turning into waltz moves.

You should like it then.

An afternoon's light read, Herr Moderator  

[Barklessdog]

I only found the eel scene shocking. I still can't eat it after that. I enjoyed the movie.

In America the movie is morally inappropriate because of the child sex scene and was banned in various communities, Blockbusters , etc.

The film features a scene in which Bennent, then 11 years old and playing a stunted 16-year-old, licks effervescent powder (Ahoj-Brause) from the navel, and performs oral sex on a 16-year-old girl (played by actress Katharina Thalbach, who was 24 years old at the time).
In 1980, the film version of The Tin Drum was first cut, and then banned as child pornography by the Ontario Censor Board in Canada.[2]
Similarly, on June 25, 1997, following a ruling made by State District Court Judge Richard Freeman, who had reportedly only viewed a single isolated scene of the film, The Tin Drum was banned from Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, citing the state's obscenity laws for portraying underage sexuality. All copies in Oklahoma City were likewise confiscated and at least one person who had rented the film on video tape was threatened with prosecution. Michael Camfield, leader of a local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit against the police department on July 4, 1997, alleging that the tape had been illegally confiscated and his rights infringed.
This led to a high-profile series of hearings on the film's merits as a whole versus the controversial scene, and the role of the judge as censor. The film emerged vindicated and most copies were returned within a few months.[3][4

In that respect I find it no different than, the movie disaster - "Eye's Wide Shut" & Taxi Driver with depictions of child prostitutes.

Mark might enjoy "The Naked Lunch" ?

[uwe]

Yes, the eel scene, that rubs a lot of people the wrong way. But "fishing" eels with a chopped off animal head or body is a traditional way of doing it and of course they are carrion eating bottom dwellers. I don't like eel that much because I find it too oily and fat.

[Barklessdog]

I saw a special on ancient Rome where at one emperor's summer home he had a pool made lined with ceramic jars. He had hundreds of eels in the pool that he kept ravenous. At parties he would through servants or guest who offended him or made a mistake, into the pond to be eaten alive by the eels for entertainment.

[SKATE RAT]

ya gotta love those Romans 

[Darrol]

I see that you guys have taken this thread off it's original topic a bit so now it is about scifi movies which is fine. Are you going to do this when I write up my opinions on Pixar's latest, Up?


-Sent from my iPhone.

[uwe]

I saw a special on ancient Rome where at one emperor's summer home he had a pool made lined with ceramic jars. He had hundreds of eels in the pool that he kept ravenous. At parties he would through servants or guest who offended him or made a mistake, into the pond to be eaten alive by the eels for entertainment.

Different animals. What you are talking about are the salt water eels (muraenidae) with sharp pointed teeth that stay in the ocean all their life, living mostly in holes and crevices or reefs with only their heads coming out for a strike for bait. Romans loved to eat them and kept them in ceramic jars as livestock.



The eels in Tin Drum are freshwater species or river eels (anguilla) that only breed in the sea (Saragossa Sea close to the Bahamas to be specific), die there and then their young take up the years-long journey from the ocean up the rivers to lakes and channels and other slow-moving water, all the while growing, much like salmon travel except in reverse direction.

[Barklessdog]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USfVXPlWBMM&feature=related

An eel typewriter