Entertainment grade: D
History grade: Fail
The Soviet and American space programmes of the mid-20th century had their roots in German rocket research of the 1930s, which was partly carried out under the Nazi regime.
Technology
Eagle-eyed readers will notice that Iron Sky is not technically history. It's set in 2018, a date currently in the future. Furthermore, this is a future in which the Nazis, after losing the second world war, escaped to the moon, whence they are now returning in flying saucers to conquer Earth. On the face of it, this film wouldn't appear to concern itself too much with historical accuracy. On the other hand, it does have a tenuous factual basis. Late in the second world war, German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun considered that he was "but a step" from setting up a space satellite. Extrapolating from his 1945 A-9 rocket, he envisaged a system that "would permit the hauling of crews and substantial amounts of materials into space. A number of such ships, maintaining a regular shuttle service to the orbit, would permit the building of a space station there." There's just the teensy problem that this didn't actually happen.
Space
The film begins on the moon – or, rather, on a cheap moon set. If you're a conspiracy theorist, you'll probably find this about as convincing as the Apollo landings of 1969-1972. Two American astronauts are one-small-stepping when they happen across a concealed lunar city in the shape of a swastika. It's a secret Nazi base! On the moon! Full of Nazis! On the moon! You can just imagine the pitch meeting. Adolf Hitler is dead (the film wins half a point for getting that right) but, otherwise, Nazi culture seems to have progressed little since 1945. Children called Siegfried and Brünnhilde learn about Charlie Chaplin's famous celebration of Hitler, The Great Dictator (running length: 10 minutes). Meanwhile, scientists build a massive space battleship called Götterdämmerung. None of this is what you might call accurate, but at least the references are quite well researched.
Politics
An American president (who is unnamed in the film, but bears a striking resemblance to Sarah Palin) is facing a second-term election. There will be an American presidential election in 2018, though for Sarah Palin to be a second-term president by then would require more or less every other Republican in the United States to be abducted by aliens over the next four years. Still, in the context of this movie, that's relatively plausible. Her desperate campaign manager parodies the already much-parodied bunker scene from Downfall, which film buffs may note is a better movie than Iron Sky.
War
What President Palin-a-like needs to win the election is a war – and she gets one, in the form of an invasion by space Nazis. "I thought I was going to have to bomb Australia or something," she gloats. Absurd, yes, but this could be a funny setup. After all, Wernher von Braun partly inspired Dr Strangelove (1964), which film buffs may also note is a better movie than Iron Sky. Unfortunately, Iron Sky is so ineptly plotted and paced that it feels like a student improvisation. The occasional good line pops out of the torpid quagmire that passes for a screenplay, but not often enough. Its politics soon veer off the rails, too, as it nonchalantly equates Nazism with American culture in a way that seems unlikely to endear it to the world's most lucrative film market.
Design
Iron Sky's Nazi moon base and ships are standard-issue steampunk, though there are some nice space zeppelins. It's a pity the production designers didn't take more cues from Hermann Oberth. Oberth worked alongside Wernher von Braun at the German Peenemünde rocket research centre. His cult 1923 book Rakete zu den Planetenräumen (By Rocket into Interplanetary Space) described a spaceship, spacesuits, space hammocks, and shoes with hooks to help astronauts walk in zero-gravity. He consulted on Fritz Lang's Frau im Mond (1929), which film buffs may yet again note is a better movie than Iron Sky.
Verdict
Almost all movies are better than Iron Sky.
