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The Wave

The Wave (2008)

March. 18,2008
|
7.6
| Drama Thriller

A school teacher discusses types of government with his class. His students find it too boring to repeatedly go over national socialism and believe that dictatorship cannot be established in modern Germany. He starts an experiment to show how easily the masses can become manipulated.

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ThiefHott
2008/03/18

Too much of everything

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Evengyny
2008/03/19

Thanks for the memories!

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Ensofter
2008/03/20

Overrated and overhyped

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Afouotos
2008/03/21

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

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Uncle Marvin
2008/03/22

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.

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Sandeep Gupta
2008/03/23

The Wave. It is a German movie and based on a social experiment by a teacher on its students that goes out of control. It works as a study of human behavior that manipulating mind of many at once is not a rocket science.The Wave is interesting because of its authenticity, its well etched characters, sharp dialogs and most importantly the underlined idea. Jürgen Vogel playing the accused and victim of the wrong doing does well and few key students characters support him well. As a nitpicking, what movie lacks is an unpredictable climax after surprising and engaging development of the story.I am going with strong 7 out of 10 for The Wave. Given the idea, it could have been much more impactful but still it has enough to entertain you and make you think at the same time.

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phoenix 2
2008/03/24

At a German high school, a new age teacher is trying to make his students understand dictatorship by forming a week long experiment forming a form of dictatorship called die welle, the wave. But as the days past by, the small group grows stronger and bigger, becoming something more than a school project, something that can't be controlled. Strong massages are passed through the movie, without tiring the audience or boring them. The story line is honest and realistic, showing the characters as they are, with their broken families, their problems, their character's weaknesses, explaining at the same time the reasons why the wave had such an impact on them. The thrill grows more intense as the project starts to get over control, however that stops violently with the ending, that grabs the big 10 out of 10 of the film. Some technical weaknesses can be overlooked by the nicely written scenario though and the great performances. So 7 out of 10, because it is a strong movie, but it spoils at the end.

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TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews
2008/03/25

In order to make a week-long school project more interesting, Rainer(Vogel, a former anarchist) teaches autocracy via full immersion. He makes everyone part of it – one designs their symbol, another their website, etc. It starts out small. Standing when you speak in class, no chit-chat, etc. Over time, however, the movement of The Wave picks up speed, and things go further than anticipated.The characterizations(and only a few lack a fully realized arc) are strong, and through this, we can see the effects of the fascism on different people. Some are troublemakers, some a little too good in class, not everyone wants to go along, and the various interpersonal relationships and students' status will be either strained or strengthened. History does indeed repeat itself, if we are not aware of the signs – put on display here. Even a small liberal community, today, with all the awareness and knowledge. Something is lacking, perhaps common values.This gives compelling exploration of conformity, uniformity, rules, following leader and groups(in- and out-), among others. Everyone is a human being, there is no black and white. The alternate rock soundtrack, cutting and hand-held cinematography highlights and renders contagious the youthful energy of Die Welle itself. We are swept up as well, and the tension rises to its inevitable crescendo. Without credits this is 97 minutes long, with them it's 103.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.There is a lot of disturbing and some violent content in this. I wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone interested in psychology, philosophy and/or history. 8/10

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