Die Welle, The Wave [Region All, NTSC]

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Most of the students feel drawn to the group because of its sense of community and belonging, becoming suggestive of the reassurance that impoverished Germans sought from Hitler in the 1930s, following years of hyperinflation and the impacts of the 1929 Wall Street Crash. Since the film-makers didn't bother explaining why "Die Welle" was fundamentally different from any other High School clique, the entire movie becomes a shiny, empty waste of time. The group’s propagandist mantra of ‘unity in power’ shares an uncanny resemblance with Hitler’s slogan ‘Sieg Heil’ (Hail Victory). A sense of militarised uniformity is then added into the mix, with the students adopting white shirts – a subtle yet undeniable head-nod to Hitler’s ‘Brown Shirts’. Now, keeping that in mind and knowing that "Die Welle" was forced in book form upon generations of German students, what can we say about the movie? To me, the movie simply doesn't work as a film. Once you have recognized the point (immediately, if you know the book), the movie becomes too obvious in its pedagogical agenda, the characters act way too stereotypically, the whole thing basically becomes incredible. the only things that work are the sidelines (Tim, who finds a sense in his live when everybody is made equal, the slight drama of jealousy), and, in fact, the ending. These are the only things that are not completely predictable, and that do not tend to point a finger at the audience, trying to teach them.

a b Ekkehard Knörrer: DerSimilar to his 2004 film "Before the Fall" which concerns the Nazi's seduction of youth, Dennis Gansel probes the individual psychologies that bring about uncontrollable collective movement, and how personal life is transformed by it. It offers a balanced view on an organisation like "The Wave" by enquiring whether it is a crystallisation of the students' class-free utopia (at the cost of losing individuality) or a community for those in need of belonging and empowerment. Jacob Matschenz as Dennis, a student who comes from the GDR. He becomes a member of The Wave, like most of his classmates. The writing, the acting and direction are excellent. Jürgen Vogel as the class teacher is both entertaining and thoughtful in his role, but the cast in general is exceptional especially as in the main they are mostly teenagers. In 2001, a musical adaptation written by Olaf Pyttlik premiered at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre in Canada. In 2010, Jones staged a musical called The Wave, written with some of the students in the class. [12]

The screenplay is based on an article written by Ron Jones in which he talks about the experiment and how he remembers it. The rights to the story which belonged to Sony were given over to Dennis Gansel for the production of a German movie. [9] As a consequence, Todd Strasser, whose novel popularized the material in Germany, and the publisher Ravensburg, did not receive direct revenues from the film project. [10] Gansel was working on the book for one year until he asked Peter Thorwarth to join him as a co-author. The screenplay moves the experiment, which was carried out in California in the 1960s, to present day Germany. The specific location is never mentioned explicitly as it stands for Germany as a whole. Loners Are Freaks: Subverted. Tim's behavior through the film, becoming a model member of the Wave and committing suicide when the movement is shut down, is caused by him being desperate to not be alone any more. Although the experiment was not well documented at the time, it was briefly mentioned in two issues of the Cubberley High School student newspaper, The Cubberley Catamount. [10] [6] Another issue of the paper has a longer account of the experiment at its conclusion. [1] Jones wrote a detailed recollection of the experiment some nine years afterward. [9] Subsequent articles by other authors followed, some featuring interviews with Jones and the students involved. [2] Chronology [ edit ] First day [ edit ] Vorlage und Handlung [ Bearbeiten | Quelltext bearbeiten ] Vom Schulversuch zum Schulstoff [ Bearbeiten | Quelltext bearbeiten ] High school teacher Rainer Wenger (played by Jürgen Vogel) is assigned a week long teaching course on autocracy. His students bore at the thought of talking about the Nazi's again and are convinced a fascist rise to power would no longer be possible in contemporary Germany. Rainer looks at the motley group of students before him, and embarks them into a movement, baptised the Wave, which will show them how fascism rises.The Wave" is one of the reasons of why I like movies. I hardly ever say something like this but this is so right and I can honestly say this about 150 movies I watched. Maybe more. Why I liked this film so much? It was dazzling, provocative, controversial, mind blowing, intriguing, pointed out an interesting discussion, and at the end it is one of these masterpieces that makes you want more, makes you have a discussion with everyone you know about it. Even more important: It urges viewers to look into their own lives and make comparisons of their realities and see what works and what doesn't works. These experiment would have worked in my country? What kind of person I'd be? A member of The Wave or a member of the Resistance? That kind of questions. This movie has everything I like to see in terms of movies. Without a good discussion, some questions and some answers you can't have a decent movie.