One foreign film that I’ve been really excited about since January is Dennis Gansel’s new film, The Wave. The name might sound familiar to you, probably because it is. The Wave is an adaptation of Morton Rhue’s conversation starting novel of the same name about a teacher who tries to show his students that dictatorships can still form and that it is very easy to be sucked into them despite your intelligent notions to dismiss them.
It’s a film based on a real life experiment and which is why I really want to see it. I’m curious to see how this actually plays out on screen, kind of like the way the Stanford Prison Experiments were simulated in the Adrien Brody flick, The Experiment. If you want, you too can learn how to start your own dictatorship, but keep in mind that it isn’t all fun and games as this trailer eerily shows.
Below you will find the synopsis along with the trailer which has been graciously subtitled for us non-German speaking folk. Check it out and let your curiosity get the best of you, I promise you won’t regret it.
Based on Morton Rhue’s classic youth novel which has been required reading material in many German schools for years, THE WAVE is a work of fiction, but one based in fact: the original experiment was conducted by history teacher Ron Jones at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, CA in 1967. With the setting updated to contemporary German, a high school teacher (Jürgen Vogel) comes up with an experiment in order to explain to his students how totalitarian governments work. A role-playing game with tragic results begins. Within a few days, what began with harmless notions like discipline and community builds into a real movement: THE WAVE. By the third day, the students start ostracizing and threatening others. When the conflict finally erupts into violence at an intramural water polo game, the teacher decides to break off the experiment. But it’s too late. THE WAVE is out of control…
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