User reviews

An amiable German social sciences teacher has to teach his children about an autocratic government. The children at first seem bored, not wanting to hear any more about The Third Reich and Nazism. The teacher is surprised. "We're too knowledgeable to ever fall into something like that again," say the students. The teacher then decides to show the children what it's like to live in an autocracy, and sets up a simple experiment in class. They elect a leader (him) and he begins to instill in them (merely as an example) the virtues and practices that accompany an autocracy ("Strength through discipline", "Work as one"). The students take to it, and become obsessed with it. Soon, what was a simple classroom experiment grows to a social entity all it's own, with the teacher not sure if he can reverse the effects.

The film was very well acted and written, and was seriously creepy. It showed how - easily a society could fall into fascism, if presented to the society in the correct way. Watching the film, I understood why the students enjoyed the new system, but was also privy to the horrors that come with it. A shocking and powerful film. The way the different children reacted and how such a seemingly innocent experiment profoundly affected their lives was incredible and horrifying. Vogel gives a powerful performance as an idealistic teacher who isn't aware of the influence he has on others. Worth seeing.

Die Welle details how a project on autocracy gradually leads to disastrous results. Initially without enthusiasm to teach the topic, Rainer Wegner conducts an unorthodox experiment to demonstrate to his students (equally lukewarm to start with) what life would be like under fascism. Neatly structured by days, the experiment begins with simple disciplines and grows to become an exclusive cult named "the wave" with its own uniform and salute.

Similar to his 2004 film "Before the Fall" which concerns the Nazi's seduction of youth, Dennis Gansel probes the individual psychologies that bring about uncontrollable collective movement, and how personal life is transformed by it. It offers a balanced view on an organisation like "The Wave" by enquiring whether it is a crystallisation of the students' class-free utopia (at the cost of losing individuality) or a community for those in need of belonging and empowerment.

What is frightening is that many (though not all) of them voluntarily follow the conformity through reasoning. Ironically, the mob mentality engulfing the students is what they condemn formerly; even the "anarchist" Rainer finds himself intoxicated with his increasingly idolised status.

An engaging and powerful film with a sense of humour, suspension (terror arises when the light goes off during Karo's anti-Wave poster distribution), twist (Rainer's concluding speech), believable characterisation and excellent acting (Jürgen Vogel, Max Riemelt, and Frederick Lau). Inspired by a true event in California , this intelligent film merits attention particularly because of its non-preaching and humanistic treatment of a heavy subject.

How does anyone really portray autocracy and/or fascism? In most ways, it can be done in the usual one-dimensional concoction of corruption, evil deeds, extreme delusion and paranoia amongst the ruling elites of the regimes. The Wave ("Die Welle") though looks at the issue from a different angle, examining how it can arise and entrance those it touches, and in the process makes the whole issue look fresh again.

The basic story is that of a school teacher (an anarchist at heart) who has to teach a class about "Autocracy". Failing to get their attention, he decides to create an experiment whereby they are to create their own mini autocracy and rules amongst themselves (named "The Wave"). With such a controversial subject, the whole thing gets out of hand with the pupils succumbing to the autocratic fascist methodology with grave consequences.

One important point that needs to be added is that its a German movie, and for historical reasons the topic is a delicate one, yet seems to add to the whole feel. The film is quite realistically disturbing in many ways, and shows how most of the pupils slowly fall for fascism in quite innocent ways. It will make you think and possibly reassess the important question, as asked in the film, if Autocracy can rear its head again.

The writing, the acting and direction are excellent. Jürgen Vogel as the class teacher is both entertaining and thoughtful in his role, but the cast in general is exceptional especially as in the main they are mostly teenagers.

If you like thoughtful films, and wish to see something that is questioning historical events in the present, then there is little to better this. Deserves to be watched. Its a film that will definitely be spoken about and re watched by many repeatedly for many years to come.

This is a wonderful film with a superb screenplay and direction and great acting from its mainly young cast. I felt myself being drawn into the film in the same way as Mr Wenger's students were being drawn into his 'experiment'. The drama unfolds relatively slowly at first, but with gathering momentum and consequences. There is also a very moving portrayal of some of the tensions produced within some of the romantic pairings as well as the extreme anguish caused in one student by his heightened susceptibility. I think the depth to which personal relationships and social groupings are explored make this into much more of a fascinating drama than an exercise in the condemning of fascism. Please don't be put off by the subtitles. I can't recommend this film too highly.

Die Welle (The Wave) is truly a brilliant tale that lures viewers into its cleverly developed plot just as Herr Wenger lures his unsuspecting students into a sense of fascism. When Wenger, an affable schoolteacher who seems to be rebellious towards traditional instruction, gets selected to teach a class on autocracy, he is upset. However, he soon devises a plan with which to teach the students a valuable lesson on the sheer dangers of fascism and the ease with which one can be lured into it.

His class starts out simple and nonthreatening. The students choose Wenger as their leader and are instructed to wear a uniform and create a name for themselves (the students choose Die Welle "The Wave"). But, this club slowly turns into a sort of fascist regime. 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.

The biting irony of this film is that at the beginning of the autocracy class, Wenger touched on the subject of Hitler's reign, and the students almost instinctively spit out answers about how Germany would never fall into that trap again knowing what they know now. But, the children soon eat their words when they become members of a much less disturbing, yet frighteningly similar clique.

There is a glimmer of this fact when two students who aren't members of "The Wave" pick on a student who is. Two other members come to the rescue of the victim. Though many may view this as a positive aspect of this sort of togetherness, the point is that fascism has developed and can easily become corrupt.

I highly recommend this to any potential viewer who either holds the same views as the students at the beginning of the film or simply wants to be entertained by the ironic theme of the film (so long as you don't mind the subtitles).

That's what the title "Die Welle" means. A teacher makes an experiment. He wants his class to understand what autocracy means. It starts with them stopping calling him by first name. Then they have to rise while addressed. Then, there are uniforms and a special saluting. And then, it runs out of control.

The most disturbing thing is that the teacher slowly loses control over himself, until there is a disaster.

OK, does it take a week to form young people to fascists? That's not the point. How ever long it takes, the interesting answer here is that it is possible at all. Do we run that risk too? Well, if you look into yourself, you maybe won't find a fascist, but you'll probably find someone who wants to be a part of something. Whatever it is.

This movie underlines that man is a social creature. We naturally form groups, groups of friends, of people who like the same music etc. Especially when we are young, belonging to a group is important, it makes our identity, who we are -- as opposed to who everyone else is. And so the teacher in the movie uses what is naturally there, to teach his pupils about autocracy. It shows what happens when you stress that identity, when you stress the sameness, and thus also the otherness of those not belonging to the group. Eventually it shows how easy it is for one, for the group to slip, even without being aware of it. Autocracy isn't dead, it is alive and it is easy. This movie is a must see for everyone, but especially for the young.

THE WAVE takes a hard look at human nature, conformity, alienation, and the attraction inherent in a sense of belonging. The power of the group is examined, as well as the roots of autocratic movements. It also shows the effects of such movements on certain young minds, with tragic results.

When a teacher (Jurgen Vogel) is assigned a class project, he makes the best of it, though it's not the one he wanted. His assignment is to teach his students about autocracy. At first, it's all good fun, but things soon take a serious turn, as the teens start to find their identity in the group, complete with a uniform dress code, a logo, and a special salute.

This is a German film, so it's not surprising that Nazism is touched on, but in this updated version of authoritarianism, different races and religions are welcome, as long as they accept the rules. This actually makes it even more insidious, because it's harder to spot.

A frank, somewhat bleak film with a strong central message...

While the 2008 movie "Die Welle" certainly was entertaining and enjoyable, then it wasn't really as impactful as the 1981 movie "The Wave".

Director Dennis Gansel managed to churn out a movie that was watchable and definitely had some interesting political and social aspects to it, some that definitely leaves you with something to think about. However, the movie just feels like director Dennis Gansel never really fully let go and delved as much into the storyline as he could have. There was a shallow feeling to the movie.

"Die Welle" had some pretty good acting performances from a rather strong and well-casted ensemble of actors and actresses. 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. Especially Frederick Lau, playing Tim, he was just outstanding in this movie.

This 2008 movie is a movie that you can watch at any time and draw parallels to parts of the world and society around you, however disturbing and offsetting it may be. But yeah, there is that socialism realism to the movie, and that is what makes "Die Welle" so memorable.

But "Die Welle" (2008) was not a contender to "The Wave" (1981), not even by a long shot. The 1981 movie had much more of a punch to it, and it was definitely more in-your-face with its brutality and more disturbing.

If you haven't seen "Die Welle" already, you should do so if you have the opportunity. But if the choice is between "Die Welle" and "The Wave", go for the latter, without a doubt.

My rating of the 2008 movie "Die Welle" lands on a six out of ten stars.

The Wave rides high (pun intended) on the new wave of film makers from Germany. The movie itself is shaped like a proverbial wave, starts gently and slowly gathers momentum and before you know it it turns into a powerhouse. The movie will amuse you, frighten you, disturb you and enthrall you completely.

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. It explains a lot about world history and current affairs.

Theme apart, I don't usually like to discuss any movie's story but I suppose if you're here you would've read the other reviews and summaries and would know a fair bit already. Putting it mildly, the movie deals with a classroom experiment about autocracy which has interesting positive and negative consequences.

The direction is sharp and spot on. The director is able to delve deeply into the minds of the various characters and explain their behaviour and position in the society that is created. It is all done realistically. The acting by and large is very good; however a few of the actors displayed a scope for further improvement. However this does not take away much from the movie experience. There are certain similarities with another great German film, Das Experiment, but not many.

I am certainly going to suggest this film to people I know including people who live on a staple of Hollywood blockbusters and like to keep away from festival films. So if you get the opportunity to watch it, please do.

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.

The Wave is like a bad soap opera at times with some terrible acting from the students and strikingly dire dialogue like "My friend has run out of drugs. Have you got some?". On countless occasions we see the students' mindsets change through tiresome interactions with their parents. The story becomes more and more preposterous as it wears on with a group of kids becoming fascists after a few days of wearing the same shirt in class.

On the plus side I would say the lead character is quite effective in the role when not let down by the script and the direction and editing are at times fairly impressive.

Overall, I'd say watch this if predictable, right-on German films are your thing, but for me it was an ordeal, with the message of the movie revealing the blindingly obvious i.e. that fascism can spread under certain circumstances, but the idea that these teenagers would become Nazis in a week is frankly ridiculous.

"Die Welle" is an above average classroom drama with a political voice. Helmed by director Dennis Gansel, film is unforgiving in depicting the youth as a generation without anything to rebel about but loneliness, making them sensitive to any sort of illusion of belonging. Mostly a riveting affair, film lags in its second act as it jumps into Dawson's Creek. Film goes ashore into a memorable finale. Straight forward filming will captivate audiences, along with a pleasing cast.

Project week in a suburban high school entails them to study various forms of government and restriction. Rainer Wenger (Jürgen Vogel), an under-appreciated teacher finds a way in engaging his students. He cleverly manipulates his class to slap them out of apathy and disinterest with tiny minute changes which eventually builds up to a boil. Classroom scenes are stimulating as debates between the students are daring and engrossing – writing mention controversial topics that are usually not spoken with lethargy. Film focuses on a group of smart people, highlighting further that what's bound to happen is even more tragic and rings a bell to what can happen out of celluloid..

Inspired by a 1960's social experiment in California documenting how easy it is to influence individuals, film looses track in its middle section as it begins to refocus on the individual lives of the students. Most characters seem to be run in the mill with general high school romance trouble, which would have been interesting but brings nothing new to the table. Stories work better as a collective rather than individuals, which further add to the intended effect. Some personalities shine though: students who never had any sense of belonging are indeed looked at with much heartbreak here as this false sense of security is embraced by them, motivating them to go a step further in preserving the society.

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. Film parallels to the effect of Third Reich within its members and climax reminds audiences of the Bruno Ganz header "Der Untergang", as it clearly parallels the extent of loyalties that may arise in such occasions. From the get go, death of a character is imminent and even with its shock value, it justifies itself as beyond a plot device.

As an ensemble, the acting here is impermeable as they all deliver solid performances. Vogel especially convey solid work as the teacher. He brings gravity and his semi-bald haircut proves ominous. It's a shame that audiences lose connection to him midway though as he suddenly becomes the background to the melodrama.

German setting of the movie elevates the film's status. It creates this palpable undercurrent, that even with a country that already identifies itself as guilty; it still cannot escape the possibility of anarchy. Even if the picture becomes stern with its themes, it still is digestible to the mainstream. Word of mouth can secure a life outside the tills.

This is my fourth German film and I'm digging them. Because you asked, I watched "Das Boot," "Downfall," and "Run Lola Run."

I thought "The Wave" was going to be corny. I thought it was going to be about a group of simple-minded kids following a leader because of some bromides. It wasn't that at all.

Rainer Wenger (Jurgen Vogel) was a teacher who was teaching a class on autocracy for project week. After a spit-fire discussion with the class about what autocracy is Mr. Wenger decided to do an experiment with the class. For project week only they would have to do what Mr. Wenger said. There were a few that resisted and left the class, but those who remained were all in. Slowly, we saw the evolution of a movement.

"The Wave" is the negative side of populism. I say that because the Wave, meaning the organization they formed, could easily have been something good. Mr. Wenger had his students doing very constructive and positive stuff. 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? Plenty of organizations, religions, and movements purport similar beliefs and they are viewed as being good. It's when people use these goodly aims to form radical armies bent on purging, "cleansing," or otherwise harming those who don't think like them, that makes a movement into a gang. And if the movement is large enough to engulf an entire nation it becomes an autocracy.

"The Wave" gives food for thought. I think the larger lesson wasn't about being a part of something, I think it was about extremism. That very same group with more moderate participants could easily have been an asset to their school and their community. So I don't knock the Wave for its extremists anymore than I knock a religion for its extremists. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

At first sight German socio-political thriller film The Wave initially just seems too cute, convenient and contrived. An extremely liberal German high school teacher (Jürgen Vogel) (of social sciences I gather) tries to give his students a first hand understanding of what "autocracy" means with a week-long role-play classroom simulation experiment: they get uniforms, quasi-military discipline, even a salute, whilst he, Wenger plays the autocratic leader. Well before the week is up, the "classroom experiment" takes on a life of its own, and virus-like spreads throughout the school and surrounding community, seemingly beyond Wenger's control.

Frankly to me, it just seems unbelievable. But then after digging a little deeper one finds out that the movie is quite heavily based on Ron Jones' social experiment The Third Wave. He was a Californian high school teacher of history who in 1967, constructed the original activity to help explain to his class how the German population could accept the actions of the Nazi regime during the Second World War. And this does give cause to not give this generally well made film, short shrift. It does have some historical basis, which clearly resonates with director Dennis Gansel and his domestic audiences, all too familiar with their country's dominant role in two World Wars.

The film is smart in that it observes the actions and reactions of a large cross-section of students to their collective role-play, rather than just a few. In doing this, it reinforces it's message of groups gaining strength through their numbers and shared behaviours. The standard of acting by the large cast is uniformly (pun intended) good and it should be added that they look like senior high school students of 17 - 18 and not 25 - 30 year olds faking it.

However I think Gansel arguably tries to tell too big a story in too little time, resulting in lack of characterisation and undeveloped and unexplored story lines. Wenger has a wife Anke, (pregnant ... again I think ... there's a pattern here), also a teacher at the school, who we hardly get to know. They seem close, yet she leaves him on the Thursday of the experiment, after ONE argument ?? Parents, as in many films dealing with high school students, just seem to be divorced from proceedings, apart from one soul telling Wenger, his son likes his class. Similarly the school staff appear to have virtually nothing to do or say about the bleedingly obvious metaphoric occurrences on campus, until it's all over and too late.

Speaking of being all over brings us to the climax and it's not spoiling to mention that the film's conclusion is far more melodramatic than that of the actual Third Wave, though fair to add, by no means beyond the bounds of credibility. It's just that once again, the final scenes of Wenger disappearing in the back of a police car raise unanswered questions of responsibility, liability, legality and ownership that the film doesn't seem all that interested in exploring, to its detriment.

This is a German film (subtitled) about a school project looking at autocracy (a la Nazi Germany). In order for the teacher to persuade his pupils that autocracy remains a real threat to democracy, he persuades them to take part in a class dictatorship. The key difference between this and your average school classroom is that he convinces the pupils not just to obey but also to want his every command. Of course the project turns bad and things get scary.

What I liked about the film was that it did not treat the pupils as "just kids"; they had brains, opinions, and their own ethics too. It is not a very black and white in it's opinion, you could draw some distinct opinion from the film but I suggest that there are several different opinions that are equally as valid. It keeps you guessing what is going to happen & even deliberately misleads you.

The Wave deals with the overlapping of concepts of unity, order, loyalty and cults in way that is refreshing and original. The acting is strong and the setup is believable.

The story of 'The Wave' progresses as a school experiment evolves and then morphs into something more sinister; or at least it should, but it does not work out that way. The film tries to exposes the mechanisms that lead to order and the creation of loyalists, things that can lead into something like National Socialism. This alone makes it well worth a watch. But after a strong opening and decent middle, the ending is let down by lazy writing.

Despite a strong concept and initial execution 'The Wave' it is less brave in it's conclusions. By choosing to blame the weak and vulnerable rather than examine the abuses of the strong it takes the easy way out. In this way the film ties it's story up in a neat bow, but as a result this leaves nothing to think about. This is a pity because until that point it is a strong story.

'The Wave' fails to rise above stereotypes and and produces a conclusion that is intended to be easily acceptable; so inadvertently 'The Wave' subverts the point it is trying to make and so negates the morality of it's own story.

Unintentionally 'The Wave' makes a better point about how media is able to produce a story that is invested with a moral point, but actually panders to bias and easy explanations. A wasted opportunity.

Great idea but flawed execution.

The central plot of The Wave was a good one. A teacher is teaching his class on autocracy, so decides to get them to behave as if in an autocracy. Within a short space of time he unintentionally creates a fascist sect.

The implementation, however, is less good. Characters are badly formed, and are often extreme. The teacher is a one-dimensional hippy, trying to be cool and getting his students to like him. Some of the kids are too ridiculous to be real, eg the kid who is always making silly jokes and pranks without any repercussions.

Some scenes just go nowhere, and/or are badly thought-out. Some of it is plain unrealistic. The ending is fairly predictable.

In between there are moments of true profundity, especially as you can draw parallels between the sect and actual fascist groups in history, especially the Nazis. However, even these moments are diluted by not following through with the parallels.

Overall, worth seeing, but could have been so much better. A tighter script, better developed characters, a bit more thought into the sub-plots and scenes, a more profound and unexpected conclusion.

For a great exploration of a social experiment gone wrong, and a group as a microcosm of society, rather see The Experiment / Das Experiment. The 2010 US remake isn't too bad either but the original German version, made in 2001, is brilliant.