Afterthoughts on The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot


There's just something about exploitation movies that I get tempted to watch them just by looking at their movie poster or simply their ludicrous title alone. I get really hyped up when I see titles like Slumber Party Massacre, She-Devils on Wheels, Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS, and many more 70s films from the exploitation genre and later modern films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Quentin Tarantino's films.

The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot gives me that same vibe. Well, that was my initial thoughts when I saw the movie poster and that awesome movie title.


However, let me be the first to point out that when I first heard about the film my mind immediately wandered off to images like this.....


And this. You know, basically anything that screams hot-blooded male macho-ness.


Admittedly, the movie started off rather slow but somehow the glacier-like speed helped to build up our expectations for the rest of the film. It really did....at least for me.


The movie combines the two most interesting subject in my books, cryptozoology and World War II. To be clear, I am not glorifying any acts of war nor endorsing any of the atrocities committed during the war, but rather the aesthetics of the era. When you talk about cryptozoology, Bigfoot certainly fits the bill although my absolute preference would have been sea/lake monsters (now that could've REALLY been something!).

Anyway, those who expects a gore-fest or non-stop action as you would normally expect from exploitation movies of yore would find yourself a wee bit disappointed as the movie isn't done in your straight up exploitation style. Instead what you really get is the backstory of Calvin Barr, the protagonist of the movie, as we are taken back way before he embarked on his assassination mission to kill the Fuhrer himself. Later on his life, Barr was enlisted once again by his country to help solve a species-ending plague threat cause by (yup, you've guessed it) Bigfoot.

To cut things short, Barr was successful in both missions but he lead a rather drab life afterwards because of the nature of his ongoing work for his country. He does not only lost the love of his life because he couldn't afford to be with her due to his nature of top-secret work, he was a lonely old man towards the end of his life, with an awkward relationship with his dog and brother his only source of real interaction.


To sum it up, I would say that:

1) the movie has an 80s setting but nothing much was done to really show the ambience and the vibrancy of the era. I understand that budget is probably the main constraint here but there was so much potential to invoke further nostalgia for lovers of the era.

2) I love the interesting 'alternate history' settings ala Tarantino's The Inglorious Basterds and the revelation made by Barr that the Fuhrer/Hitler himself was staged by many actors. Seemed that Barr managed to assassinate one of the many 'Fuhrer' therefore he did nothing to stop the 'ideology' because he only succeeded to kill 'a man'.

3) the Ape-like Bigfoot is so much alike to the neanderthals in 2001: A Space Odyssey and I later found out that the suits were creation of the same man. Mindblown.


If you have any doubts about the plot or plot holes, then I suggest watching the movie for Sam Elliot's and Aidan Turner's acting. That's all I have to say about that.

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