Tag: THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT

Review by Stephen Tronicek

At the bottom of the poster to THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT the tagline reads, “An American Myth.” This is an adept description because The Man Who Killed Hitler (because, no, I won’t make you read that title again) is about the status of the North American myth with all the benefits and downsides intact.

Intelligently, that’s never really brought into the text of the movie, with the story proper being about a man named Calvin Barr (Sam Elliott should have been nominated for this performance), a former Army man now comfortably living in Canada with only his thoughts to the past and uncanny ability to go into murderous fits of rage to disturb him. Soon his comfortable life is disturbed when two government agents come to ask him one question: “Can he kill the Bigfoot?”

To figure that one out, you’ll have to consult the movie…or the title. Again, the gore tinged text of The Man Who Killed Hitler is entertaining but is far from the most interesting thing going on here and it’s good that the movie gets this out of the way in the title. As an examination of myth, it gets a lot more fun.

Within the subtext here, it becomes quickly apparent that what writer/producer/director Robert D. Krzyzewski is using the traditional trappings of certain North American myths to comment on what these myths can do. Barr basically acts as a proxy for the effects of the outdated American Rifleman myth, a myth extolling “virtues of masculinity” like strength, respect, cunning…but also violence, insecurity, and of course the unencumbered glorification of guns. It makes you ask the questions like, “What would really happen to a man who held the killing of Hitler on his shoulders?” and in turn, “What has the myth of the American exceptionalist killing Hitler do to American culture?” This effectively lies the path for the idea that outdated American myths can both give us meaning in our lives but also be harmful, at worst leading to our demise or the demise of everyone around us.

That being said, some of the stretches the film goes to include myths does spread it a bit thin. There’s a love interest (played by Caitlin Fitzgerald, who is so good in everything that her mere presence makes this movie better), that feels like another prop to extol a “love story” myth, that comes off as a bit ignorant in its use. Fitzgerald is good enough that it doesn’t matter, but there’s an element of glorification that maybe pushes things a bit too far.

For a movie that is so hammy and confidently weird, THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT actually decides to say something about the American myths that it co-opts. Under the confident direction and even more confident lead performance, The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot, becomes a pleasant divergence, one that might just have something to say.

3 1/2  of 5 Stars