The Wave (Die Welle) 2008

[Apathetic or whatever]

Many things about this movie reminded me of Fundystan. Several things in the movie made me lay on the floor and twitch like a frog leg in a frying pan (As my dear old grandpa would say)

The movie is inspired by real events. The original movie called The Wave came out in 1981. It was based on a book called The Third Wave which told of the original experiment.


The premise of the movie is really quite simple. A German teacher is assigned to teach a week long class on autocracy instead of his preferred subject, anarchy. He decides to conduct an experiment and try to establish a pseudo-fascist group by controlling his students.

The movie trailer:




(Spoilers ahead! Be warned!)

[spoiler]His class opens with a discussion of the rise of the Nazis. Several students groan, roll their ideas and express their opposition to even talking about the Nazis. Most of the 16-17 year olds in the class believe that the Nazis were horrible but that they had nothing to do with the atrocities. Finally, one student says that Nazism could never happen again in Germany.
This statement provokes the teacher, Rainer Wenger, to try an experiment on his class. He begins implementing rules and establishing his absolute authority over the class. Some of his rules are:
1. He is to be addressed by a special title.
2. People have to stand up when they speak to him. When he asks a question of a student they must stand to respond.
3. Wenger rearranges the classroom to break up cliques.
4. He assigns seats to the students, pairing the low performing students with the high performing ones. This is ostensibly to help the students with bad grades to improve but it is really to enforce groupthink.
5. Wenger then implements a dress code. It is simple, just a white shirt and jeans. However, one girl refuses to wear the uniform and is marginalized. At one point, a boy in a white shirt is being bullied. Two other boys come to his aid when they normally would not have bothered. They do this because he is now part of their group.
6. Wenger then proposes that they vote on a name for themselves. Various suggestions are put forward. Karo, the girl who refuses to wear the uniform, suggests a name. Wenger at first ignores her but then finally puts her choice up to be voted on. His signals have been received and she only gets one vote, her own.
7. He singles out an enemy for the group. The anarchists. In reality this is just the group meeting in a class similar to his, only to study anarchy.
8. He assigns tasks to each member of the group to complete. The goal of each task is the glorification of the group. Each individual is to sacrifice himself for the group.
9. Free thought is not allowed. Dissenters are asked to leave the class.
10. New people are encouraged to join the class. Some of the original members are charged with getting them up to speed.

By the third day the group begins to think for itself and takes on a life of its own. Toward the end of the week the group has gained several new members and many sympathizers. The group starts to run amuck. They design webpages with images of violence. In addition they design a logo and go on a graffiti rampage across town.
One of the focal points of the movie is the student Tim. He is a true believer and takes what Wenger says seriously. He is portrayed as disturbed and carries everything too far. Before he had no sense of community but now he does. He starts to carry a gun so that he can protect the other members of the group and indeed does this.

The climactic scenes show Wenger realizing that his experiment has gone too far and he struggles to find a way to end it. He calls a general assembly of the group and their sympathizers. They all turn out dressed in the prescribed uniform. This is where things get really ugly.

The parts that reminded me of Fundystan:
1. Groupthink. Dissent is not allowed.
2. Dress code. Those who differ are ostracized.
3. Conformity. This is strongly encouraged by the group.
4. Persecution complex.
5. Rules are enforced by the group, not the leader.
6. Leader is special, different. Given special title.
7. Group is prioritized over the individual.
8. Climactic scene where Wenger harangues the crowd is VERY reminiscient of a fundy preacher.
9. The presence of true believers.
10. No dissent or alternative viewpoints tolerated. Before long, this is being enforced by students against other students.
11. Solidarity of the group against everyone else.
12. People joining for the wrong reasons. The original students were required to be there. Before long, students are joining for the sense of solidarity or to be part of the in crowd or to have power over others.
13. Relations between dissenters and group members is disrupted.[spoiler]

Maybe I have Fundy on the brain but this movie was a shocker for me. I was particularly perturbed to recognize several of the techniques from my Fundy U. We were actually instructed in how to form groups like this! Creepy.

This movie is very pleasing aesthetically. I had to rewatch several scenes just because they were cool. The movie makes great use of reflections. Additionally, some of the scenes had to be very hard to shoot but they are awesome to watch.

The acting is, for the most part, very good. The actor who plays Wenger, Jurgen Vogel, is superb.

Two scenes are superfluous. It turns out that the director has a cameo in both of these scenes. I do not think this is a coincidence.

The film is in German with English subtitles. I could not find a rating but the film has strong, pervasive language and violence.

[NotUnderLaw]

There is a 30 minute english version (1980s) floating around somewhere.

[Sharon]

I remember the 1981 version. It was chilling (obviously, to sixth-grade me. Don't know how I'd feel about it now.)

I might look for the book for my sixth grader; it's like dystopian fiction without being fiction.