I must admit that I've found myself on a bit of a foreign film spree. This is my second movie in a week that I've watched that was entirely not English. The first was a film called 9th Company, a Russian movie on the daunting experiences of a Russian military company stationed at the most outward post - forgotten by the retreating main body of the military. **Blog soon to follow.
The second was this gem of a movie about a school teacher in Germany who conducts a social experiment in response to his class telling him that they believed a dictatorship could never again rise in post-Nazi Germany. Unfortunately, his social experiment The Wave (Die Welle) goes terribly wrong when a few members take it to the next level.
It was really interesting and a little disturbing how cool I thought the idea was before I realized what was happening. It wasn't long before more or less innocent behavior typical to a bunch of teenagers caught up in the newest rage became overshadowed by the sentiments of a few extremists. Over the course of this week long "class project" the movie shows a variety of responses to the social unit known as The Wave ranging from companionship and improved self-image to bullying and exclusion. But without fail the group begins to implode and the teacher is forced to move in order to stop it.
The interesting thing wasn't completely about the fact The Wave has it's own self-adopted uniform, salute, code of honor, and leader with a name like Heir Wenger (pronounced Vanger). It was the fact that as I was watching all of this happen I was shocked and somewhat terrified at the notion that the actions of the movie kids weren't far from what I would expect from real kids today. With an ending that leaves you no option save but to think... this movie will make you question any "class projects" your teacher is suggesting.
Overall rating? 8.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment