Review – Iron Sky
The great Italian playwright and satirist Dario Fo, won the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature in 1997. Fo was given the honour for being a person “who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in the scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden”. Fo’s work, especially ‘The Accidental Death of an Anarchist’, is satire at its best, and works on the principle that the at the heart of any political driven comedy is an underlying truth.
‘Iron Sky’ tries to present itself as a comedy with some elements of satire, but it’s a complete misfire dragged down by a strange blend of Grindhouse cinema that takes itself too seriously.
Set in 2018, during a mission to the moon astronauts discover that the German Nazi Party have established a base on the moon where they have been living since the end of World War II. The Nazis have plans to return to the Earth and take power by invading the planet with an armada of spaceships.
The special effects work in ‘Iron Sky’ is great considering the film was made on an estimated budget of just of seven million Euros (estimated US $9 million). The spaceship designs of the bad guys fits in perfectly with the Nazi aesthetic and that flows over onto the set and costume designs of the space environment.
‘Iron Sky’ makes it pretty clear early on that it’s a film that shouldn’t be taken too seriously but the gags around the Nazis just don’t sit right. For what the Nazi party stood for, it deserves to be deflated, but it’s difficult to connect with the humour when thinking that these people committed one the greatest human atrocities in history – the holocaust. The film easily forgives and uses the Nazi brand as a tag for bad guys and nothing more.
The film tries to make the connection between the Nazis and the current state of American politics via a US President character that embodies the Sarah Palin brand of politics, but it’s done in bad taste and this is where the satire fails. With slogans like “Black to the moon” slapped on a mission to send an African-American man to the moon and a character calling former US President Franklin Roosevelt a “spastic” is where the filmmakers show how out of touch the film is. It’s this kind of humour under the guise of satire that is worrying, and while it’s easy to demonise the political system of the US, it could be done with more intelligence and wit, instead of a script that is full of expletives.
‘Iron Sky’ tries to fool the audience with the “so bad it’s good mentality’ when it reality it’s – “so bad it’s…just terrible”. The film is littered with strange Grindhouse/exploitation film elements like when a blonde female character is almost sucked out an airlock into space and she is stripped down to her underwear or the hammy performances from the entire cast. Don’t mistake clapping in screenings of ‘Iron Sky’ for people collectively slapping their foreheads. The finale disappoints the most with a final plea at shoving a political message down the audience’s throat in an attempt to be taken seriously.
The best thing to come out of ‘Iron Sky’ is the debate it might generate over the comedic value of Nazis, and if so, the world must be ready for a musical about September 11 or a buddy concentration camp comedy (both terrible ideas). Maybe we’re just a little old fashioned but satire is a powerful tool that should not be misused for cheap laughs.
0.5/5
‘Iron Sky’ is released:
10 May 2012 Australia
23 May 2012 UK
The Popcorn Junkie
Hi there, Popcorn Junkie. This is the director of Iron Sky, Timo Vuorensola, writing. I noticed your tweet where you said that I “tried to talk you out of doing a review”. I usually don’t react to reviews or articles, whether good or bad, on the Internet regarding Iron Sky, but the only thing that really pisses me off is amateur journalism, of which one part is plain lying to your audience.
Here’s the discussion we had on the Internet, to refresh your memory:
I noticed you commenting a line in the movie where the character with a close resemblance to Republican ex-candidate Sarah Palin refers to an ex-president as “spastic”, which I found out offending you.
I asked:
“@PopcornJunkies Hi, as the director of the film, I’m interested why so? Wouldn’t that be something a person like the character would say?”
To which you answered.
“@LeonBlank the character is unlikeable already, statements like that are putting nails in the coffin I’m afraid”
Which led me to the question:
“@PopcornJunkies Did you get the impression from the way the character was presented that she was *supposed* to be “likeable”?”
To which you commented:
“@LeonBlank yes I understand the character was meant to be vile, why degrade a historical figure when you’ve already made your point earlier?”
And I wanted to know:
“@PopcornJunkies I’m… surprised of this notion. So, you are saying that historical figures shouldn’t be mentioned in character dialogue?”
To which you replied:
“@LeonBlank bah, we can get stuck in a cycle of mass generalisations, I just think it was disrespectful”
After which you followed up with a question:
“@LeonBlank can I ask why something like the holocaust was so easily forgotten while making gags about the Nazis?”
To which I answered:
“@PopcornJunkies Because the film is a comedy about Nazis, not a comedy of the victims of the Nazis.”
After which you announced, like the professional you are, that I’m doing an open Twitter interview, which I – again – had not told to be doing:
“Director of ‘Iron Sky’ @LeonBlank is answering your burning questions now, hit him up”
And that was the end of the discussion we had. I did ask you not to go announcing open Twitter interviews on your blog before agreeing, but suggested that if you want to schedule one, I’m happy to do that. You never suggested the time and date, maybe you weren’t serious after all.
However, I assume the core of the dialogue was for me to find out why you felt that the dialogue by the character was so off-character, and you clarified why you felt so. Thank you for that.
But now, I’d like to ask, at what point did I ask you not to write a review?
Because, you tweeted:
“Here’s the ‘Iron Sky review the film’s director tried to talk us out of http://t.co/Yin7dRFq”
Was there a discussion I was not aware of? Or did you just make it up?
I’m happy you did write the review, and so far I’ve never asked anyone not to write a review. Only thing that makes me a bit mad to be honest is when film journalists tell lies to the audience. Filmmaking isn’t easy, and our duty as a filmmaker is to stay true to what we believe is the film we want to make, and follow that path. Your duty as a film critic I think is to stay true to your feelings about the film, and whatever you write, it should be honest to yourself, but also honest to everyone you’re writing to.
You really can’t go making up stuff to make your articles more sexier and spread wider on the Internet. That, I would say, is amateur blogmanship, and should not go unnoticed.
I certainly hope you don’t do that to other films and filmmakers in the future.
Thanks for reading our review, and apologies for the language in that tweet. We meant to say that you argued your points via Twitter while we were writing our review. You are entitled to your opinion and we welcome it.
As for announcing on Twitter you were answering questions,it was never made official, we were just pointing out that you were actively engaged with us in conversation and other fans might want to as you a question who enjoyed the film. You ain’t James Cameron yet and people can freely ask questions if they choose.
This has been a great learning experience. We stand by the review & wish you the best with your next film.
Thank you, apology accepted. Your review is sound, nothing to complain there; just wanted to point out some Twittertiquette mistakes, and am happy to see you’ve taken them well.
Have to say I enjoyed couple of your reviews and will continue reading this blog for further thoughts on other films!
Hey there Mr. Director, if that is really you. I have to congratulate you on possible the worst film I have ever seen. I just now watched it and I can say for sure that you should never be allowed within 100 yards of a camera for the rest of your life. Now that I got that bashing out of the way let me say this, you should not be using something you don’t understand (Nazis, in this case) in order to get a laugh out of people. It just seemed like tacked on “Sieg Heils” thrown around by a bunch of actors. Stalin seemed like more of a Nazi than those guys…
And what is it with movies now? I mean, why in every movie do I see racial mixing (Always black men getting white women, of course)? I’m no Nazi, but it’s kind of insulting to but black up on an alter like that over whites. I mean here is what I have seen in this year alone:
“Inglorious Basterds” – Jews killing whites
“Django Unchained” – Black slave killing whites
“Iron Sky” – Black man killing whites and fucking white women
“American History X” – The intelligent black teacher fixing the “stupid” whites
“Machete” – An illegal immigrant killing evil conservative whites
Is no one else getting tired of this shit? I should make a movie about whites beating ignorant blacks into a corner, then we will see how “funny” these movies are.
“@LeonBlank can I ask why something like the holocaust was so easily forgotten while making gags about the Nazis?”
“No poetry after Auschwitz”, it seems. 😛
Because there is a lot more to the Nazi regime than just the Holocaust.
Um… I don’t recall a massive amount of mentions for the holocaust in pretty much every other film that featured the Nazis in a comedic role, of which there are god knows how many. One minor example – I seriously doubt “‘Allo ‘Allo” would have been as loved as much as it was by working class Britain if the various plots ever touched on Herr Flick helping to kill gypsies, jews and homosexuals. Saying that, not every Nazi had a hand in or was aware of these efforts, am I reich?
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