The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot Review
The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot is a 2019 adventure film about a legendary American war veteran who is recruited to hunt a mythical creature.
You see a title like The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot and immediately feel the tiny muscles around your eyes reflexily begin to clinch, ready to commit to the biggest roll of your life. I mean, Hitler and Bigfoot? In the same movie? Sure, the B-grade digital movie shelves are absolutely stuffed with goofy movies with even goofier names like this, an entire sub-sub-sub genre of movies dedicated to schlock of the high…er, lowest order. And then you see Sam Elliott‘s name top billed and you’re like, what? Should I watch this? The answer is yes.
We’re somewhere in the 1980s and Calvin Barr (Elliott) is eeking out the last years of his life at a bar near the Canadian border, unhappy with the years behind. He seems the forgettable type, but of course is anything but, his past a colorful one going back to WWII as a special operative (played younger by Aidan Turner), who took part in a terrifying and harrowing mission to get behind enemy lines and take out Hitler himself. The experience left him changed, as it surely should, and he remains haunted by his actions. And then an F.B.I. agent (Ron Livingston) shows up with a new special mission, hunt and kill Bigfoot, who is said to be the cause of an apocalyptic deadly virus, and Calvin has a chance to realign his life.
Elliott has spent almost fifty years playing mostly supporting characters, his lean, rugged presence – and that almost always there magnificent mustache – making him a screen icon. He’s made plenty of movies better just by being in them, that gravely voice and hard stare leaving a lasting impression for any who can’t help but take notice. So it is with The Man Who Killed Hitler, written and directed by Robert D. Krzykowski, who surely is a student of the star he cast, orbiting everything in this unexpectedly stable film around Elliott. Even as it flashes back to his youth in the war, there’s no escaping the elder Elliott, who so dominates the film, he ultimately saves it.
There’s actually a lot that is important to these jumps in time, with young Calvin given plenty of weight in setting about his dangerous task, seeing and doing things that greatly scar him decades on. Sure, Krzykowski doesn’t have the budget to go big, stitching together instead a far more intimate experience that reimagines history (or does it?) much like Quentin Tarantino did with Inglourious Basterds. At least one part of it.
That said, the movie is not about great momentum or strains of challenging innovation. It’s a character study, laser focused on the actions and consequences of a unique man literally and metaphorically tackling the demons he lets burden his ever waking hours. Naturally, Elliott is all the reasons why to tune in, the film a slow revelation as we discover who Calvin is at home and what he does about it in the Canadian forests. Despite its title, The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot is not a comedy, nor a parody. Krzykowski plays it entirely, deadly serious, nary a single tongue in cheek. Some may be disappointed by that absence, and its decided lack of action, though for those longing to see something different and another stirring turn from Elliott, this is how to do it. Highly recommended.