La troisième vague

It's important to note, when looking at the reviews and comments on this movie, that nearly all of them were written more than a decade ago. At the time, news media and the entertainment industry were just waking up to the new crime waves from Eastern Europe, and speculations and predictions were wildly out of proportion. This movie is a good example of that, and while it probably seemed somewhat realistic at the time, watching it for the first time 12 years later means almost two hours of facepalming.

Another funny thing is that of this first trilogy of Johan Falk movies, only the first one holds up today. "Noll tolerans" was a tight, domestic thriller, and while suffering from some genre clichés, it could very nearly have been produced today. The next two, "Livvakterna" and this one, simply come across as sensationalist speculations run amok. Wildly inaccurate numbers and absurd conjecture are painfully present throughout. Yes, financial organized crime was and is of course a large and real international problem, but neither the European governments or society as we know it fell, as this movie would have us believe. If you're just getting into the Johan Falk movies, I'd recommend you watch the first one and then move on to the 2009 installments. This initial trilogy is in many ways a set of relatively well made thrillers, but their wildly distorted look at contemporary events come across as mostly embarrassing today.

The top-budget Swedish movie of all time- "The third wave", with a budget of ~35 million SEK (errh some $4.5 million...) scores well for a Swedish action movie. It's predecessors is among the top of the later years' movies and "Third wave" continues the work of art. Jacob Eklund is as before excellent in his role as Johan Falk, we have a tight script and the plot is both interesting and somewhat applicable to reality. Of course there are some flaws, and the storyline gets a little messy at times, but overall I was very satisfied and I am happy that the capacity is there for making high-class movies although the budgets compared to US numbers are substantially smaller. it also proves that money does not equal quality. 8/10

I've just seen this movie tonight on Melbourne's SBS TV channel and had to see what others had thought of it (a pity the professional reviews are all in languages other than English). No matter. While it took a while for the plot to get going, I was engrossed from the beginning. It's great to see non-Hollywood actors (who can also act) in a good movie. For me, seeing unfamiliar faces in a thriller/drama adds to its impact, which doesn't often happen when I see so-called Hollywood "stars" who just can't forget their "star" quality... (eg Cage, Cruise).

Some of the events in The Third Wave relied a little too much on coincidence to be believable, especially toward the end. And the Munich riots in the last section were rather "over the top" (I thought I was watching 28 Days Later at one point) - it was reassuring to read others' comments that such wild behaviour wasn't typical of protests in Munich.

Nevertheless I was totally involved - I initially didn't have a clue who was to be trusted (thanks to a good script) - and the film's overall quality warranted my forgiving its unlikely coincidences.

The movie takes "organized crime" as topic and is very up to date. If you read Jean Ziegler's book (published 1998 in Geneva - I don't know the original or the English title), you know what the film is talking about. It is about the modern form of economics, the modern way to make money: by stealing taxes, using capital markets, tax havens, private police forces... the main "Baddie" studied at the London School of Economics. Obviously it was there where he learnt to make money by stealing power from the people or democratic governments, using corrupt banks and secret accounts.

The film uses the struggle of grassroots movements and NGO's as a background: the end of the film takes part WITHIN a demonstration against globalization, which takes place in Munich, the city of the REAL annual "NATO Security Conference" - annual demonstrations included. While the movie describes properly the mechanism of the modern capital markets - organized crime being a regular part of them - the Munich demonstrations are not shown correctly. I live nearby and watch them each year. There is much more police, which is armed heavier, and which is the only violent force on the streets, always being able to suppress any non-peaceful protest. Violent protest, as shown in the film, is not possible in Munich. During the Nato Conference, Munich seems to be a totalitarian Banana Republic. And there is absolutely no way to get near the conference hotels, if you are not invited. Believe me, the demonstrators try it each year...

But the capital markets are not affected. What the film is not telling you - as it is first and foremost an action movie: the problem are not certain human beings, who are criminals: the problem is the structure of the system (capital markets), which allows criminal behavior - which even DEMANDS criminal behavior to be successful. In this system you have to choose between having success or having moral values.

Sweden has a literary tradition of very high-quality political crime and action thrillers, starring heroes like Martin Beck, Carl Hamilton - and Johan Falk. All of them have been turned into movies, and the latest trilogy with Johan Falk - Noll Tolerans, Livvakterna and Den Tredje Vågen - continues the honor roll. These are very well-produced and exciting action movies; certainly impressive by any Scandinavian standard.

They are not perfect, though. Good as they are, they are marred by formulaic elements, like extremely evil bad guys who always threaten to beat and/or kill women, which is "the easy way" for a writer to show how evil the bad guys are. As a result, the realism suffers. The third movie in particular also gets unrealistic in the dramatic finale, with Helén (Falk's girlfriend, mostly an innocent bystander) suddenly turning into an expert pickpocket and "undercover operative". The massive riots in Munich were also a bit over the top, I thought, and not really necessary for the story, except to allow the writer to avoid having Falk do all the dirty work of disposing of the bad guys.

But even so, these movies are highly entertaining and well worth watching. The movies get progressively better, building excitement as they go. The independent security force in Livvakterna was very cool, and the international action in Den Tredje Vågen, with Nicholas Farrell's well-acted character switching sides because he's all integrity, was very satisfying.

7 out of 10.