[FANTASIA 2018] ‘THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT’ Review

The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot — holy shit! Not since The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain and To Wong Foo: Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar has a movie come along with a more cumbersome title. In fact, with a title like this you kind of expect a tongue to be firmly planted in cheek…but you won’t find one here. This is a fairly straightforward movie where the title is completely accurate, and yet also very misleading.

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Calvin Barr (Sam Elliott) is nursing a beer at his local bar. Something triggers a memory of his past, something that will occur many times throughout the film. In this specific instance, he’s performing espionage as a young man (Aidan Turner) during WWII. Back in reality a few guys try to mug him, which doesn’t end well. He may be old, but he’s still got skills. He drives home and breaks down crying in his car. This guy is tortured. He lives his days quietly, remembering objects that hold memories, and a love from his past, Maxine (Caitlin Fitzgerald). Also, that mission he was carrying out in WWII was killing Adolf Hitler. One night two G-men (Ron Livingston and Rizwan Manji) appear at his door with a mission to bring him back from retirement and eliminate a biological threat in Canada: Bigfoot. This creature holds a deadly virus that could wipe out humanity, and Calvin is the man with the skillset to bring it down.

Sam Elliott is almost 74 years old, and he inhabits Calvin with a weathered, weary, haunted soul that has lived. While the real man may not have performed the act of killing a dictator and a mythical beast (that we know of), he’s had a massive career of almost 100 roles. Many cowboys, many burly men, and occasionally a manly man exposing his soul. All of that experience comes well into play with this movie as Calvin reconciles with his past while then being given a chance to save the world for a second time…and still, nobody will know what he did. It’s a wonderful, somber performance that also showcases how kick-ass this guy still is.

Writer/producer/director Robert D. Krzykowski has made quite an impact here in his debut feature; this is a beautifully shot, low-budget effort with a unique genre bend and a surprising amount of sweetness. I can’t recall anything else that’s quite like this blend of two film archetypes. This is more of a glacial-paced drama that makes a turn towards being…well, Sam Elliott in Predator for around 20 minutes. It’s very thrilling when it gets there, and Calvin seems to be comfortable enough with death and tortured enough by his past that you don’t really know where it’s all going to end up. Even at around 95 minutes, the movie does have a very slow, thoughtful structure that isn’t quite what I was expecting or in the mood for, but was pleasantly surprised with what I got.

I feel like many going into the movie with expectations based on the title are going to be severely disappointed that this isn’t Bubba Ho-Tep. That’s the closest movie I could think about comparing this too, and one that I could see someone thinking they’ll get from this. It’s not. It is, however, unique and pretty good in hindsight. Go into it with adjusted expectations and you may just love it.

Good news! In addition to playing at Fantasia 2018, The Man Who… will be released by Epic Pictures (hopefully) later this year!