The Wave

2008 "Their teacher became their leader. His students became his soldiers."
7.6| 1h47m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 18 March 2008 Released
Producted By: Constantin Film
Country: Germany
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.welle.film.de/
Info

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.

Genre

Drama, Thriller

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Director

Dennis Gansel

Production Companies

Constantin Film

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The Wave Audience Reviews

Scanialara You won't be disappointed!
Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation
Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.
Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
santiagocosme More than a great movie, the Wave is a great story. Although it is based on real events, I did my homework and the story of the movie is much older that the film would make you think. It is based on an experiment conducted in 1967 by an American teacher who wanted to demonstrate how easily a movement similar to the Nazis could get ignited again. The movie is socially magnificent. It shows you how a group works and functions in unity under certain circumstances, and how easily individuals lose their ability to think outside the boundaries set by the group they have formed themselves. What I enjoyed is the fact that there was tension throughout, and you kept asking yourself how far would the group go and when the teacher who started it would find himself unable to control the force of the Wave. The Wave may not be the best movie you'll ever see, but it's well worth a watch.
Bob An It was on national television last night. I was curious to see it after a brief description on the net. And it was good.It says that it is based on the true story. I don't know how much of it really did happen, but the premise of the new group calling themselves 'The Wave' which is made of high school students is pretty interesting and who develop from a class experiment to a movement in just 3 days... Whoa! This is something that I don't really believe can happen. It may maybe in the course of 3 weeks... The acting of all teenagers was good. I guess the main male role is good too. The notion of new fascism or totalitarianism is kinda scary and it was a bit uncomfortable to see how people react when they are in a mob or a group. It is something that scares me personally. I give this movie a note 8. I have seen some other experiment type of movies with students, but this one is the best - from what I remember.
Sandeep Gupta 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.
featheredsun This film gives us a possible snapshot of German feelings about community, struggle, and the youthful process of finding a way forward in a confusing world. The script, acting, and artistic choices all come together in a solid film that keeps your interest and makes you think about your own emotional reactions.--Summary-- Rainer Wenger is a teacher and coach at a modern urban highschool whose background and studies have educated him on social resistance, street movements, and anarchism. For the school's "project week" he is given, against his desire, the project of teaching about autocracy. In spite of his initial distaste, he decides to swim head-first into the themes of unity, cooperative action, and pride...and ends up in the unstoppable current of fascism.Students from a range of social and economic backgrounds end up flooding into the class, finding strength and meaning in the growing movement that is taking form. The Wave, their name for their group, ends up breaking out of the classroom and flowing into all aspects of their lives. Many of the students find real achievement and growth, but these same young men and women fail to see that some of their actions are alienating and even persecuting non-members. As relationships with non-Wave loved ones become strained and certain youthful pranks get more and more attention (and resistance), Wenger himself realizes things have gone too far. But can he even stop this Wave that he created...before it washes away everything in it's wake? --/Summary--The film is definitely memorable, especially as a German film. This reviewer believes it ends up showing where the balance is currently between the desire for greatness in German culture, and the lingering guilt of the Third Reich.