The rights to the story which belonged to Sony were given over to Dennis Gansel for the production of a German movie. The appeal of The Wave, and by extension that of all populist-authoritarian movements, is that they provide a sense of unity, of belonging, of purpose. Even though I am a senior citizen, I identified with these kids and could imagine myself, in all innocence, being led astray just by wanting to be part of a group that accepted and protected me. Director Dennis Gansel seems to like movies about the power of groups and how they affect the individual.

The notion of new fascism or totalitarianism is kinda scary and it was a bit uncomfortable to see how people react when they are in a mob or a group. The 2-Disc DVD comes with 83 minutes of interesting extras: 23 and a half minutes of good deleted/extended scenes(clearly removed purely for pacing), a well-made 22 minute making of, 17 and a half minutes of cast/crew interviews, a 6 and a half minute alternate ending, 6 minutes of funny, at times hilarious, outtakes, a 4 minute music video Empty Trash, 3 and a half minute class visit, 2 minute concert video Digitalism, 1 and a half minutes with Ron Jones(who did the original experiment that this is based upon), and half a minute of storyboard-to-film comparison. Gansel himself had felt an oversaturation during his schooldays and had developed an emotional connection to this chapter of German history only after watching the film Schindler's List. Who doesn't believe that there's strength in unity, who doesn't believe in equality, who doesn't believe in helping their fellow man?A chilling insight into our deepest frailties and shortcomings, and hidden evils that are part of the human condition. A high school teacher's experiment to demonstrate to his students what life is like under a dictatorship spins horribly out of control when he forms a social unit with a life of its own. The unsuspecting students think they are participating in some sort of fun club, but they are really being shown how easily impressionable people can be attracted by autocracy. It would have been interesting to see how he would have reacted to the group and how they would have taken him in.

If you haven't seen this movie, please don't bother; you can learn much more about the teenager's psyche by reading "Lord of the Flies" and "The Wasp Factory".To summarize the plot, Rainer Wenger (Jürgen Vogel) is selected in his department to teach autocracy for one week, to his disapproval.

The film portrays perfectly, Jones adds, the feelings of a younger teacher around older, more experienced teachers, their suspicions of his methods, and the relationship between the teacher and his wife. As I haven't really watched an abundance of German movies, then I can't claim that I were particularly familiar with anyone of the cast list here, but there were some pretty good performances here, and some rather memorable ones as well. Thereby he described Jones, who supported the film project as a counselor, as a "living certificate" of authenticity and that the ending was inspired by the Emsdetten school shooting. Another interesting thing portrayed here was the relative power of one person, not only by the teacher, but a girl who walked out of the experiment and tried to convince the other students of how things were going in the wrong direction.Jürgen Vogel as Rainer Wenger, the main character and teacher who started the experiment with his class. According to the lack of depth in their motives and emotions, they seem to be distanced, the critics argued further, especially Karo's transformation from the enthusiastic participant to the aggressive opponent is not comprehensible. Finale is spellbinding as even if it diverts a lot from the actual experiment, it still proves as a necessity to further establish a point.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. The movie takes a lesson in human psychology and shows how it is possible for a person with oratory skills and confidence to start a movement that turns into a revolution with frightening possibilities.Please consider upgrading to a Pro account—for less than a couple bucks a month, you’ll get cool additional features like all-time and annual stats pages ( example), the ability to select (and filter by) your favorite streaming services, and no ads! The major difference, however, concerns the physical violence and the bloody end which became part of the movie.