E's Reviews: The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot

The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot was written and directed by Robert D. Krzykowski and stars Sam Elliott as Calvin Barr, a man who served his country during World War 2 to assassinate Hitler. Years later, his country calls on him to once again serve his country, to eliminate the mythical Bigfoot because it is spreading a deadly virus in the wilds of Canada and is making it's way South to the United States. The film co-stars Aidan Turner who plays the WW2 Calvin Barr, Ron Livingston, Caitlin Fitzgerald, and Larry Miller.

A lot of people were talking about this film after Fantasia Festival in the summer of 2018. I didn't know what to make of it, really. A lot of movies with silly titles, such as this one, are usually films I take a pass at. I saw Sam Elliott was starring, and had a cast of actors that I did enjoy seeing before. A few friends passed along what they thought, and I instantly knew I needed to see this film. Alamo Drafthouse here in town was lucky enough to have a screening at a reasonable hour (seriously guys, stop showing movies at 10 PM...I got work in the morning!) And there are a few things I didn't really enjoy about the film, so let's get into that first.

First and foremost, the title will confuse a lot of movie-goers. For the genre fans, they won't get what they're looking for here. There's little action, horror is almost non-existent. What action scenes that were in the film felt jarring, and poorly edited together. I found myself actually bored by the action sequences, wanting to get back to the actual story and theme of the film. There isn't much tension in this movie, either. Which brings me to what this movie actually is and why I adored it...

This film is a drama, plain and simple. It's got an amazing cast that all come together in this character study of Calvin Barr. This man is plagued by memories of what he was forced to do during WW2, and when he's asked to kill again, he almost breaks down. Here we have a man that is non-violent, he's loving, he cares about his little brother (portrayed by Larry Miller who did an amazing job convincing me he looked up to his big brother...seriously, it brought tears to my eyes) and he's being asked to kill again in what felt like a really weird plot point. There were just too many genre jumps back and forth in this film to really peg it as anything, but since there was a lot of drama going on, that's what I'm going to go with. Sam Elliott gives one of the best performances of 2018/2019 in this film. The cast around him is amazing. Aidan Turner gives a great performance as the younger Calvin Barr. The one thing that did stand out to me and blew me away, bringing about the emotions that the director was trying to portray I'm assuming, is the music. The score in this film is downright beautiful.

The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot is a tremendously underrated drama that has elements of science fiction, action, and horror that brings the feelings. But don't be fooled, this movie doesn't focus on the genres or on the blood (of which there was almost none). This movie focuses on the man, Calvin Barr, and his hardships through the years. And that is what made this movie a winner for me.

Final Score: 8.5/10