Movie Review: Die Welle (2008)

Are people so easily impressed and to manipulate so that you can start a modern Dictatorship? Is it even possible in a German school? That's one of the things " Die Welle " ( 2008 ) tries to explore during its 1 hour and 37 minutes. Just as "The Wave" from 1981 this movie is based on Todd Strasser's book "The Wave". A teacher is trying to teach his student about autocracy and he believes the best reason to teach them is to show them. So soon he starts a game. A game where he's a dictator and everyone needs to follow a few rules or else they'll get kicked out of class. Rules: 1. Always address him as Mr. Wenger. 2. Don't speak unless you're asked to by Mr. Wenger. 3. Stand up when to answer a question. 4. Keep your answers short and to the point. 5. Be a unit, act like a unit, be the same. This game soon gets out of hand when the students don't realize they're getting more involved than the game was supposed to. Soon there are followers outside of class and they vandalize the down with their sign. People who don't follow The Wave get frozen out and soon there's a dictatorship going on without anyone but the outsiders seeing it. How do you tell a group of people they're acting all "Nazi" like? You can't. You can't tell them something they don't want to hear. They've to realize it themselves. I haven't read the book but I've seen both "Die Welle" and "The Wave" and I really can see why people fall under so hard. I mean you get accepted for whom you are, what you are and social status doesn't matter in the group. I can imagine that's something most people want to feel, they want to be accepted for who they are. But in all that blissful harmony they forget something. They're accepted as long as they follow the group’s code. They're accepted as long as they don't stand out. And they're not even "themselves". They're just one in the crowd. Because when time passes soon everyone becomes the same. They all have the same purpose even though that's not what you first wanted. You get stripped by your own individuality and it's only a person that's strong and independent that could stand outside a group like this while he/she gets glared at and so on. It's a really fascinating subject, how you can manipulate a whole school or even a country to have the same believes as yourselves. And this doesn't only include dictators like Hitler, Caesar, Franco, Castro or who ever. It also includes religion. Christianity, Hinduism, Muslims... everyone fight for their own believes (not so much now as then in a killing way) and when someone don't believe in the same thing you do they freeze you out of society, stalk you and sometimes even kill. It's insane. I'll give the movie a 4/5. I think the movie's great for education purposes and similar stuff. Check it out if you get the chance. The acting's great, the soundtrack's even better and over all it's a really good movie.