WAVE, THE: DVD

SYNOPSIS:
During project week, high school teacher Rainer Wenger (Jürgen Vogel) is refused his chosen subject of Anarchy, in favour of Autocracy. He comes up with an experiment in order to explain to his students how totalitarian governments work. Within a few days, what begins 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... (Based on real events in California in 1967.)

Review by Andrew L. Urban:
It took one week - just one week, to turn a group of middle class high school kids into a Fascist mob with all the hatred and violence that represented Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy or Communist everywhere. While this is a dramatisation of real events - in California, no less, not Germany - the message is still valid. Like the other German film about a real experiment, Das Experiment, in which volunteers play guards and prisoners, the ability of humans to slide into abhorrent, hateful behaviour is easier than we like to think

But the point of the film is not to preach, although it is certainly a genuine warning. The point is to explore human nature, to see how easy it is to create the conditions that appeal especially to the weak, the disenfranchised, the unloved, in which they feel empowered, and their resentment becomes a deadly weapon.

It's brilliantly written and directed, wonderfully performed by an ensemble cast, and haunting in its intensity. Nominated for a the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, and showered with other accolades, The Wave is a chilling portrait of our basest instincts. The DVD also includes a special interview with Jürgen Vogel, who plays the school teacher creating the experiemnet, never expecting it to be so terrifyingly successful.

Published March 19, 2009