The Wave (2008)

I just saw this movie and thought it was really good. It is based on a book that was based on a true story. In the original story a teacher in California in the 1960s tried to show his students that what happened in Nazi Germany could happen anywhere. This movie takes place in modern-day Germany and has much more meaning than the original experiment in the US ever could (based solely on Germany's past with the Nazis and Communists.) The movie is a German film in German and some parts look and sound just like a Nazi or East German rally with the marching in step, the shouting orders and the hand signs. like most things it is about a social experiment that goes out-of-control. The experiment includes the popular, outcasts, rich and poor and aims to teach them about a dictatorship, but goes a step further and transforms the students into brained-washed members of a cult that only do what they are told, when they are told. In the beginning of the film the students say that things like the Third Reich and East Germany could never happen again in Germany. I don't know what they are on, but it is clear to anyone who has been to Germany or even read about the country that conditions - high un-employment especially in eastern Germany, strong extremist groups, a weakening currency and economy, etc - are ripe for a return of the old dictatorships (especially considering that the German Government often seems to encourage the actions of former German dictatorships by the way they do very little to punish former Nazis and former East German Communists and in most cases allows them to live openly with many receiving government pensions.) While I know this kind of thing can happen in any country of the world the fact that the movie is German gives it more symbolism. It was interesting to see how the students changed without even noticing. I did like that there were some students that resisted the experiment (there's a scene where two girls throw leaflets protesting the experiment just like the White Rose did against the Nazis.) In the end the teacher realizes that he took things too far and tries to stop it, but not before some students take things to another level.