The Man Who Killed Hitler and then The Bigfoot - with many spoilers

The Man Who Killed Hitler and then The Bigfoot is an absolute mouthful. “The Bigfoot” is also problematic for me as either there is one and he’s called “Bigfoot” rendering the ‘the’ unnecessary, or he killed 1 of multiple “Bigfoots” making the whole murder redundant as there are still further Bigfoots out there. ‘The man who killed Hitler and then Bigfoot’ seems correct, or using the flawed logic of the person who titled the film; ‘The man who killed The Hitler and then The Bigfoot’.

Verdict

My movie ratings consist of thumbs up or middle fingers as sometimes one starring something doesn’t shame it enough. 5 thumbs up = an absolute triumph. 5 middle fingers = a complete piece of shit, go fuck yourself.

The Man Who Killed Hitler and then The Bigfoot - 4 thumbs up

Incredible movie. Poignant in the face of nonsense. Powerful and moving.

Favourite quote “Some old things just hang around” - the kid at the till in the corner shop says this to Calvin and they share a knowing half smirk.

Also: “I see artistic love in your eyes” - Russian gypsy barber

“This is nothing like the comic book you want it to be” - Calvin. Meta.

Favourite scene

“May I give you the shave?” The scene where a young Calvin gets a ‘Gypsy shave’ from a Russian in a tent in order to acquire a German Shepard was my favourite part of the whole movie. Intense. And I'm sure the curse was relevant in ways beyond my understanding.

Something else noteworthy; The mirror clock! That was a stroke of genius. Did it represent having to look back to move forward? It bloody well did. This film is full of shit like this.

Best meme from the movie

Analysis The Man Who Killed Hitler and then The Bigfoot is a film of two halves. This is emphasized in a couple of ways by the director. The ‘and then’ in the title separates the two events and the opening title sequence of the film literally draws a line down the screen with The Man Who Killed Hitler showing on one side, and and then The Bigfoot displayed on the other side.

Going into this movie I was expecting to find a set of ridiculous ideas all thrown into a melting pot of crowd pleasing nonsense such as Snakes on a Plane. The sort of movie a teenager would have gotten excited about. Adding Hitler, Bigfoot, fire, guns and a plague. Sort of like dreaming of eating a dinner of all your favourite things; Ice cream, steak, Haribo, crisps. Sometimes all of your favourite things thrown together just make a disgusting mess. This film however was incredible. The director achieves what I thought to be the impossible and makes this hideous concoction into a beautiful five star meal. He has turned a crisp bag with steak, ice cream and Haribo inside into a beautiful rib eye steak, accompanied by sweet potato thin crisped wedges, followed by a rich and sweet Haribo infused sorbet which is all nicely paired with a glass of laughs and tears. Incredibly well written.

The first half of a movie is an example of flashbacks done correctly. The complete opposite of Midnight Cowboy. We follow Calvin Barr as he potters around his empty life. Lonely drawn out days with his dog, a fractured relationship with his brother and not much else give way to memories of an incredibly exciting and important life, but he has no-one to share them with. His whole life has been shadowed by his former actions and they have cost him the only thing he ever truly wanted, his potential fiance, the one that got away. The memories that mirror this half of the story show a very believable murdering of The Fuhrer. This is no doubt a conspiracy theory brought to life, although I have read that there were a few opportunities to kill Hitler intentionally missed by The Allies as, as the film mentions, the ideas were already there and his potential predecessors were much more ruthless than he was.

The action in the second half of the movie all happens in the present. The flashbacks are the slow element here in contrast to the first half of the movie as they mainly centre around the good times he has with his former love, who we learn died young. In the present Sam Elliot is being dropped inside of a circular fire on the American/Canadian border with a rifle and a knife and expected to kill ‘The Bigfoot’. The singular Bigfoot that carries all of the plagues in the world for some reason. He does this convincingly and respectfully, empathizes with and sheds a tear for The Bigfoot… before having the flaming creature leap onto his back. This I was not expecting. The scrambling around on the floor with what looked like a man in a gorilla costume should have been cut, but in the age of Netflix, with no bonus footage and deleted scenes required to sell a DVD it was left in.

The bottom line

This was a truly touching tale about digging up your past - Sam Elliot literally digs his past up from his own fake grave. A beautiful story that could bring a tear to the eyes of three Hitlers. The actual three we had during world war two, not the made up ones in the movie. A must watch.