Director Dennis Gansel seems to like movies about the power of groups and how they affect the individual. All of his movies deal with this subject. I had some problems with his previous outing "Napola" (wrote a review on IMDb), but in "Die Welle" he gets most things right.
Let's start with the negatives, just to get them out of the way:
-I found the marketing to be too aggressive. That's not the movie's fault but one could almost picture the producers trying to find a project which will get hundreds of German classes into the cinema.
-The big gripe I have with this movie is that it chooses the wrong girl as the heroine. Each of the students is a symbol for a certain type of students. Gansel avoids turning them into clichés, but they are symbols nonetheless. Most of the kids go for the movement, there are mainly 2 girls who don't. I don't have a problem with the first one, the smaller role. She is the typical hippieesque do-gooder who is almost fascistic herself in the way she is trying to get her own point across and thus creates an interesting and realistic persona. She values the individual, but by listening to her you get the feeling that she herself does not respect people who don't share her opinion.
It's the other girl who is the problem. This is the type of over-achieving person who engages in all kind of projects, plans ahead for the future and does everything to succeed in life. She is mostly egocentric but can hide it pretty well by engaging in group projects. Nevertheless, she is a typical "Generation Y"-kid who only acts when she can find personal gain in it. This girl is the spitting image of the ideal that German teachers and parents are trying to create at the moment and that in my own personal opinion is just wrong. The reason why she quits the group initially is that a white shirt doesn't suit her well. In fact, laughable as it is, this is the one realistic thing about her. I am deeply convinced that this character would in reality not be able to look through this scheme, but that instead she would happily participate in the group and try to advance her own position by bringing in lots of more new ideas.
In my opinion, the most realistic opposer would be an outsider who remains an outsider just because he feels unwell in groups. But this guy would be hard to identify with.
-One minor point: The Turkish guy should not have been so well-adjusted to German culture. It would have been interesting to see how he would have reacted to the group and how they would have taken him in. The movie would be even more controversial if it had shown that this would be a way in which integration could work, even though with horrible side-effects.
But enough about the negative.
The movie works well even with its flaws. It grabs you from the beginning and does not let go. The movie adapts the novel towards modern Germany but sticks close enough the source material to realize the main plot points. Even if you know what is going to happen the movie makes you follow the plot and think along.
What I like most about it is that it does not preach or give easy answers. It raises questions and forces you to think. Except for the very last scenes the events are never too much over the top and every single event by itself could find some sympathy in the viewer. This way you yourself are tempted by "Die Welle" and you have to force yourself to think why exactly it should be wrong to oppose it. In fact, in many ways I was reminded of school spirit in American high schools, especially while I was watching the sports scenes. There is no easy way out of "Die Welle" and therefore it makes it interesting for all nationalities, not just Germans.
The movie changes the ending of the novel a bit. (Here comes the spoiler).
Instead of revealing Hitler as the groups true leader, the teacher only gives a speech after which the events get out of control and a student dies. This is some rather shaky territory, because in this scene the movie really threatens to go over the top. I can definitely understand viewers who dismiss this movie as junk at this moment, but I think that it is actually a quite realistic scenario. Gansel wisely shot this scene in a very realistic way: he makes it quick, surprising and ugly and this way he makes it feel organic stylistically. It invokes the terror of school shootings and reflects one of Todd Strasser's other novels, "Give a boy a gun", and suddenly one understands the decisions of the character Tim, the boy who finally found a meaning in his life even though he still was not really accepted. He was now accepted as part of the movement, but not as an individual. Unfortunately he does not recognize this and this leads to the tragic events.
End of spoiler.
Final Comment: What I found most strange about the movie was that none of the characters knows "The Wave", since it has been taught to death on German schools. But I guess the movie would not have worked otherwise. Even though I believe that most people know about the story already I advise everybody to watch this update. They will definitely find something new in it to keep them thinking.
Let's start with the negatives, just to get them out of the way:
-I found the marketing to be too aggressive. That's not the movie's fault but one could almost picture the producers trying to find a project which will get hundreds of German classes into the cinema.
-The big gripe I have with this movie is that it chooses the wrong girl as the heroine. Each of the students is a symbol for a certain type of students. Gansel avoids turning them into clichés, but they are symbols nonetheless. Most of the kids go for the movement, there are mainly 2 girls who don't. I don't have a problem with the first one, the smaller role. She is the typical hippieesque do-gooder who is almost fascistic herself in the way she is trying to get her own point across and thus creates an interesting and realistic persona. She values the individual, but by listening to her you get the feeling that she herself does not respect people who don't share her opinion.
It's the other girl who is the problem. This is the type of over-achieving person who engages in all kind of projects, plans ahead for the future and does everything to succeed in life. She is mostly egocentric but can hide it pretty well by engaging in group projects. Nevertheless, she is a typical "Generation Y"-kid who only acts when she can find personal gain in it. This girl is the spitting image of the ideal that German teachers and parents are trying to create at the moment and that in my own personal opinion is just wrong. The reason why she quits the group initially is that a white shirt doesn't suit her well. In fact, laughable as it is, this is the one realistic thing about her. I am deeply convinced that this character would in reality not be able to look through this scheme, but that instead she would happily participate in the group and try to advance her own position by bringing in lots of more new ideas.
In my opinion, the most realistic opposer would be an outsider who remains an outsider just because he feels unwell in groups. But this guy would be hard to identify with.
-One minor point: The Turkish guy should not have been so well-adjusted to German culture. It would have been interesting to see how he would have reacted to the group and how they would have taken him in. The movie would be even more controversial if it had shown that this would be a way in which integration could work, even though with horrible side-effects.
But enough about the negative.
The movie works well even with its flaws. It grabs you from the beginning and does not let go. The movie adapts the novel towards modern Germany but sticks close enough the source material to realize the main plot points. Even if you know what is going to happen the movie makes you follow the plot and think along.
What I like most about it is that it does not preach or give easy answers. It raises questions and forces you to think. Except for the very last scenes the events are never too much over the top and every single event by itself could find some sympathy in the viewer. This way you yourself are tempted by "Die Welle" and you have to force yourself to think why exactly it should be wrong to oppose it. In fact, in many ways I was reminded of school spirit in American high schools, especially while I was watching the sports scenes. There is no easy way out of "Die Welle" and therefore it makes it interesting for all nationalities, not just Germans.
The movie changes the ending of the novel a bit. (Here comes the spoiler).
Instead of revealing Hitler as the groups true leader, the teacher only gives a speech after which the events get out of control and a student dies. This is some rather shaky territory, because in this scene the movie really threatens to go over the top. I can definitely understand viewers who dismiss this movie as junk at this moment, but I think that it is actually a quite realistic scenario. Gansel wisely shot this scene in a very realistic way: he makes it quick, surprising and ugly and this way he makes it feel organic stylistically. It invokes the terror of school shootings and reflects one of Todd Strasser's other novels, "Give a boy a gun", and suddenly one understands the decisions of the character Tim, the boy who finally found a meaning in his life even though he still was not really accepted. He was now accepted as part of the movement, but not as an individual. Unfortunately he does not recognize this and this leads to the tragic events.
End of spoiler.
Final Comment: What I found most strange about the movie was that none of the characters knows "The Wave", since it has been taught to death on German schools. But I guess the movie would not have worked otherwise. Even though I believe that most people know about the story already I advise everybody to watch this update. They will definitely find something new in it to keep them thinking.