A Look Back: Iron Sky
“The Meteorblitzkreig Shall Begin!”
This is a movie that exists. I feel as if that is the best way to open up a conversation about 2012’s Iron Sky. This movie is set in a fictionalized 2018 in which Sarah Pailin in the President of The United States and where the Nazis have been hiding out on the moon since 1945. For anyone who has never seen, or in most cases even heard of Iron Sky, that sentence might throw them off to the idea of this film. However, with the upcoming sequel Iron Sky: The Coming Race (due out sometime in 2019), I figure now is as good a time as any to take a look back at this weird sci-fi comedy about Nazis from the moon.
Seeing as this is a part of an ongoing series, be sure to check out my previous story on Ridley Scott’s 1989 crime-thriller Black Rain.
Having recently rewatched this movie with a group of friends who had never seen it before, and who knew next to nothing besides the plot synopsis on Amazon, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that it is worth a watch.
I had not seen it in quite sometime, but within mere moments of the opening of the movie, my memory had been jogged and everything I remembered starting coming back to me. That being said, this is obviously not a movie for everyone. Honestly, I really do not know who exactly this movie was made for or if there was even a target audience in mind when it was being made, but if you can just shut your brain off for its short hour and a half runtime it is not hard to find some form of enjoyment from this film. Whether it be the wildly quotable one-liners, to the cheesy characters, or to the surprisingly good-looking special effects during the climatic space battle, there are a lot of things that somehow manage to work in this movie when in reality, nothing should.
With Iron Sky, there are actually quite a lot of positives to look at. The filmmakers clearly knew that their idea for a movie was batshit crazy and used that to their advantage in making the finished product feel like a modern-day B-Movie. This adds to the fun, with the whole concept of Moon Nazis already being a wild idea, they continue to escalate the craziness throughout the movie whether it be America basically becoming the new Nazi regime or the sequence of the “Meteorblitzkreig”, in which the Nazi’s hurl meteors into Earth’s major cities.
Comparing Iron Sky to another political satire such as The Death of Stalin, this movie would fall short in almost every way. In this film’s case that does not mean it is bad, rather The Death of Stalin is just a really fucking great movie that works on every level. The other big thing that this movie has going for it is that it is wholly unique in both its story and content. Iron Sky feels like a vastly different movie than anything I have ever experienced.
As for the political aspects of this movie, it is actually pretty crazy to see how this movie came out in 2012 and had the President of the United States fall in line and actively use/promote Nazi propaganda, and get re-elected doing so. As mentioned in the opening of this piece, this movie takes place in 2018, and while Sarah Pailin has never been and still is not the President, one could easily draw some comparisons in how the ideals of white supremacy and Nazi propaganda align with the current POTUS. The gif below is from the scene in which two representatives from the 4th Reich arrive to the White House to give a speech to the President, and then her subsequently using the speech to get herself reelected. Watching it now gives the content of this scene (and the overall narrative) more of an impact than what was initially intended due to the political climate of the world currently.
Performance wise, this movie is all over the place. Obviously it is meant to be in the style of an old-school B-movie, and so in that sense much of the overacting can be forgiven, but while some of the writing is legitimately funny and well-written, other sections are cringe inducing. Thankfully most of the actors do their best to make due with what they are given, and some ham it up and really just come off as having a blast with the over the top characters (Stephanie Paul as “Not” Sarah Pailin).
The special effects in this film do deserve some recognition. While they do not reinvent the wheel or break down any barriers, they are actually really good looking for a movie with a budget of approximately €7,500,00 ($8,593,125.00 in U.S. Dollars). The entire final space battle sequence looks shockingly impressive for a film with a budget this low. The action is over the top and completely non-realistic, but the movie makes it work while also giving it the best special effects possible.
To reiterate my point from the introduction; this is a movie that exists, but it also more than that. The filmmakers set out to make a crazy sci-fi comedy B-Movie about Nazis from the moon, but in the process they were able to make an instantly memorable movie with consistent quotability, solid special effects, and somehow also managed to hit impeccably close in the political aspects of the film. Iron Sky may not be the best movie ever made, or even the best B-Movie of all time, but it is damn entertaining and has grown in meaning due to the ever changing political climate. Iron Sky is definitely worth a watch (or a re-watch if you have seen it before).
I also mentioned in the opening of this article that there is actually an upcoming sequel to this being released later this year, Iron Sky: The Coming Race. The trailers for this makes it seem like legitimately one of the most wild things I have ever seen. Hollow-Earth, Hitler riding a T-Rex, more Sarah Pailin, superpowers, and who knows what else are all things you can expect when this movie arrives later this year. Seriously, check this trailer out if you have some extra time or any interest in this series.
Also be sure to check out any of the previous editions of A Look Back, such as this one on Tron: Legacy.
