Roger Ebert of the '' Chicago Sun-Times '' awarded the film two stars ( out of four ) , writing " I must confess that the symbolism of the drum failed to involve me " : Vincent Canby of '' The New York Times '' called it " a seriously responsible adaptation of a gargantuan novel , but it 's an adaptation that has no real life of its own . There are a number of things seen or said on the screen that , I suspect , will not make much sense to anyone who is n't familiar with the novel ... However , because the story it tells is so outsized , bizarre , funny and eccentric , the movie compels attention . " Gene Siskel of the '' Chicago Tribune '' gave the film a full four out of four stars and called it " quite shattering " with " one striking image after another . " Charles Champlin of '' The Los Angeles Times '' declared that it was " like few films since ' Citizen Kane ' — a combination of stunning logistics and technique and of humanistic content that is terrifically affecting . " Gary Arnold of '' The Washington Post '' wrote that it " will be hard to beat as the season 's most prestigious bad idea for a movie , " stating that Oskar " does n't have a personality forceful enough to unify the rambling continuity or replace the narrative voice and complex of meanings that gave the book intellectual vitality and authority . " At the 1979 Cannes Film Festival , it was jointly awarded the Palme d'Or , along with '' Apocalypse Now '' . '' The Tin Drum '' was the first film directed by a German to win the Palme d'Or . In 1980 , it became the first film from Germany or in German to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
1979 Cannes Film Festival
1979 Cannes Film Festival
The Tin Drum (film)