RE:VIEW ~ “Iron Sky” (2012) + “Iron Sky: The Coming Race” (2019)
I wouldn’t have bothered with reviewing Nazis at the Center of the Earth if it wasn’t for the Iron Sky films.
I originally went looking for something I thought was called “Nazis on the Moon,” because I remembered that plot conceit but wasn’t sure of the title. A title like Nazis at the Center of the Earth is something that certainly is going to intrigue me (obviously), despite its incorrect spelling of the word ‘centre.’ Thus, I watched the picture about sub-antarctic fascists, while marking these two films for later consumption.
It turns out that Nazis at the Center of the Earth was released ASAP in 2012 to capitalize on Iron Sky. To have someone create something to ride your coattails is quite the compliment; not every film has coattails!
Let me tell you, this film and the second one are fantastic. Despite having money being contributed by a vast number of private and governmental sources, the production quality, acting, and story are all vastly superior to the results made by The Asylum. I don’t know what I expected (maybe something that looked like someone shooting with a VHS camcorder from the ’90s) but this exceeded anything I hoped for, by far.
First, and probably most importantly, these pictures refuse to take themselves seriously. I can’t imagine any other way to approach this material. It is only by making the greatest evil imaginable the most ridiculous thing imaginable can we conquer it [cf The Producers, Hogan’s Heroes, Blazing Saddles, and so on).
Also, these films are very much political and social satires. In the first film, we have a President of the United States who very much resembles Governor Sarah Palin facing a re-election struggling for a unifying message that the majority of voters will rally around, and the Lunar Nazis are all too happy to provide it to her. This supposes that the Senator John McCain won instead of Barak Obama, and then Sen McCain passed away, putting his Vice President in charge (a frightening thought only to be topped by the election results of 2018).
The resultant campaign, plus how they get there, is classic “how did the Nazis get in power in the first place?” Sadly, the blueprint works perfectly, both in the film and in the streets of America almost a decade ago.
Honestly, though, this is a comedy. I’m delving deep into the socio-political ramifications of the plot, but that’s un-necessary and counter to the surface material of the film.
The second film is equally preposterous, and picks up almost immediately after the first film in terms of as time line. Watching the two back-to-back is quite rewarding; I recommend this.
The acting involves a number of great performances too numerous to mention. The scripts for both are tight, yet loose enough for fun to be had. The sets and cinematography are top-notch, with dimensions and lighting that make Nazis at the Center of the Earth look like a student film in comparison. There’s no confusing these two motion pictures with a semi-amateur effort to ‘put on a show in that old barn!’ Costumes are perfect, hair and make-up are immaculate; I swear even the catering shines in these films.
So, the reason I bothered reviewing Nazis at the Center of the Earth is simply to explain what does not work at all, and then follow up with saying what does very much does work thank you very much. These films work exactly because they do not do what the other film did.
Just starting with the idea of a Nazi base on the moon is ridiculous; never mind the notion it has been able to operate continually since the end of WWII without supplies or detection. That’s the key to these, obviously: start from ‘over-the-top,’ and then build from there. Both do this perfectly.
The other film starts with something they struggle to make believable., They put so much effort into it that the sweat is obvious. No one wants to see motion picture makers embarrassing themselves, and Nazis at the Center of the Earth does that more often than anyone is comfortable with. Both Iron Sky and Iron Sky: The Coming Race have nothing to be ashamed of from their start to finish.
I've skipped-over the lengthy history of both films’ coming-to-be (crowd sources financed more than 10% of the production costs of the first picture) and concentrated on the films themselves. There is a third film in the works, but there are headaches involved with that which are more than the usual ones.
The Iron Sky intellectual property was owned by Iron Sky Universe which entered bankruptcy in 2021 and was purchased by another company unrelated to the original filmmakers. The third film continues to be developed and you can go here to learn more and support them financially.
I really want to see another one, as long as they can keep up the irreverent humour and over-the-top silliness.
Very recommended.
★★★★☆ for both
Read another post
Previous •