Uncle Marvin
The Wave is a German foreign language film in the drama genre. It's Lord of the Flies meets The Stanford Prison Project. If you like foreign films for the nonformulaic content, this one is for you. The Wave is a must see for anyone interested in social studies, leadership, teaching, Nazism, or group psychology. It's a didactic cautionary tale. The plot follows Rainer Wenger, the "cool teacher" at a modern German high school. Contrary to his rock 'n' roll, anarchist beliefs, he is assigned to teach a class on autocracy. The teacher uses the project to turn the classroom into a social experiment. Along with the natural momentum of the crowd, "Herr Wenger" forms and leads a "movement," by organizing the students into a single unit with militant discipline. What follows is a transformation of the students as they galvanize around the group mentality, sense of purpose, unity, belonging, structure, and mob mentality. They radically shift their personalities and become inspired. It's a study in groupthink versus individualism. In all fairness, it's not a suspense film. The Wave features a large cast of well-developed characters. The acting was on point and you could see the fruits of the direction. Once again Europe proves that you don't need a fortune to produce quality entertainment. As an aside, Lord of the Flies was written by William Golding, a Jew, as a commentary on the potential for the average person to get swept up in Nazism. As with Jewish social scientists Maslow and Milgram, they wanted to demonstrate that the Nazi menace could happen anywhere and was not exclusive to Germany because of a cultural predisposition to authoritarianism. Golding was also British and he wanted to challenge the notion of English cultural superiority. Ironically, the Nazis at first lambasted psychology as the "Jewish medicine." Indeed, Freud and his disciples were Jewish, reflecting an historical interest in the subject dating back to Joseph, the biblical Israelite patriarch and dream interpreter. The psychoanalytic school had a token, "Aryan" Carl Gustav Jung. Jung started out as a student and close friend of Freud. They broke over philosophical and personal differences. Jung, with his theory of the "Collective Unconscious," specialized in organizational psychology. When the Nazis took over, most of the top psychologists fled Germany because they were either Jews or friends with Jews. They saw the writing on the wall and were too intelligent to go along with the program. Ever the devoted German, Jung remained, with fateful consequences.Hitler and Goebbles did an aboutface and realized the validity of psychology. Jung was recruited into the Nazi Party and became their top psychologist. He worked hand-in-hand with Propaganda Minister Goebbles in the Ministry of Information. The "Collective Unconscious" quickly became the "Racial Unconscious." Jung had a direct and responsible hand in designing Nazi rallies, for maximum impact. For example, there were torches used as decoration, the thinking being that it would inspire the rank-and-file by hearkening back to pagan roots--unconsciously. Some people believe Jung's betrayal of humanity was motivated by a personal betrayal of Freud. He fell victim to his own programming. In one scene, Herr Wenger is seen wearing a T-shirt with the name Marie Curie depicted. Curie was the French scientist who discovered radium and later died from its poisoning. Wenger's character arc follows a similar path, not unlike the classic German fairytale of Frankenstein's Monster. In the '80s, the Americans made a similar film to this one, but it drew the characters in stark contrast rather than shades of grey. The Wave had many subtleties and complexities to it. The psychological phenomenon of the "lone gunman" is broached. There is criticism of the Left, as well as the Right. In one scene, the hippie character urges a school newspaper editor to manufacture news to the detriment of The Wave, because "the end justifies the means," echoing voices on the American Far Left. The Nazis were big believers in the ends justifying the means. As long as people hold fast to the notion, they can become capable of anything. The Wave illustrates this point beautifully. It's meaningful edutainment.
grantss
Great idea but flawed execution.The central plot of The Wave was a good one. A teacher is teaching his class on autocracy, so decides to get them to behave as if in an autocracy. Within a short space of time he unintentionally creates a fascist sect.The implementation, however, is less good. Characters are badly formed, and are often extreme. The teacher is a one-dimensional hippy, trying to be cool and getting his students to like him. Some of the kids are too ridiculous to be real, eg the kid who is always making silly jokes and pranks without any repercussions.Some scenes just go nowhere, and/or are badly thought-out. Some of it is plain unrealistic. The ending is fairly predictable.In between there are moments of true profundity, especially as you can draw parallels between the sect and actual fascist groups in history, especially the Nazis. However, even these moments are diluted by not following through with the parallels. Overall, worth seeing, but could have been so much better. A tighter script, better developed characters, a bit more thought into the sub-plots and scenes, a more profound and unexpected conclusion.For a great exploration of a social experiment gone wrong, and a group as a microcosm of society, rather see The Experiment / Das Experiment. The 2010 US remake isn't too bad either but the original German version, made in 2001, is brilliant.
Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Die Welle" is a 100-minute movie from 7 years ago. It was written and directed by Dennis Gansel, who adapted an American short story for this one. Gansel is trying to become a known name in America in the next couple years and we will see if his attempt becomes more successful than the ones of Henckel von Donnersmarck and Uli Edel. This movie here features some of Germany's most established actors (Vogel, Paul, Kroymann) and some of Germany's biggest rising stars (Riemelt, Lau, Ulrich, Matschenz, M'Barek). Max Riemelt is a regular in Gansel's movies as well. Lau won a Best Supporting Actor German Film Award for his portrayal here. I believe that, even if his characters are not too different most of the time, he is a pretty talented actor and there will be certainly a lot more to see from him in the future."Die Welle" is a great example of an actually creative approach to putting the German Nazi past on the screen. There are so many movies out there that deal with the topic and are all basically the same, but this one here is a refreshingly different way of coming to terms with our past. Well done. It is not perfect by any means, but very watchable for almost the entire movie. I personally felt that the final scene at the auditorium was a bit too showy for my taste and it is certainly very different from the 1981 45-minute version and much more in your face. Also, I was not particularly wowed by the scenes with Paul and Vogel. The scenes with the kids were just better and more interesting except the escalation scene during the water polo game, in which the violence did not feel too credible. And Ulrich's character turned a bit too much into a second Sophie Scholl as the film went on. A bit of a shame as the movie's take on freedom pf press and opinion was a good one. A bit more subtlety would not have hurt this film. However, I really liked the final shot with Vogel in the police car. The screenplay is mostly fine from start to finish and Vogel and Lau give pretty good performances. Vogel's character is also very interesting. He did not get enough approval from his teaching colleagues, but the kids love him. He is a bit of an outsider as well and that is why he enjoyed all the appreciation and kept pouring oil into the fire not realizing the intensity of the flames he was creating. This film is certainly worth a watch. It was the most successful German movie in cinemas here in the year 2008, made even more money than the Oscar nominee "The Baader Meinhof Complex".
diogocomex
This movie is so pathetic. There are so many gaps and non sense actions. I'm so disappointed with it, since I've consulted IMDb before watching. What was the point to create rage in a common sense that could make all the classmates united to fight for the same reason? There is no rage, there is no sadness, nothing! There is a moment where it just looks like a teenager TV program, when classmates go out spreading their mark around the city, and there is no fear of consequences, the old fashioned and cool goofy guard who runs near but can't catch anybody and all the Hi five. Well, I have no balls for such a kind of movie. Don't waste your time here, look for another title.
