The Wave

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Amaror

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So getting bored last i night, i skimmed through the movies on netflix and, to my surprise, found the Wave.
To those of you who don't know:
The Wave is a german movie based on a german book. I had to read the book in school and we wend to see the movie with the whole class. The book was actually good, one of the few were i didn't mind having to read it.

But i never thought i would see it on netflix. It's a german movie. It's not even translated, just german with english subtitles.
And Netflix isn't even offered in germany!
So my question basically is: Is this film well known, or maybe even popular, internationally?
Have you heard of it? (If your not german that is)

If you want to know what it's about.

It's a movie about regimes, kindoff. Basically a teacher has to teach his students about the third reich and they all get bored instantly (The third reich comes up pretty often in german schools) and make the case that something like the third reich could never happen nowadays.
And he wants to prove them wrong and makes a little social experiment, by having his students form a group, called "The Wave". At first he just introduces some discipline. They have to call him by his last name and have to stand up when talking. Then he encourages them to always help each other. Then he introduces an "uniform". And so on.
At first everything wents well. The students come closer together and it even integrates the former outcasts into the class. Then it goes out of control. People get penalized for not belonging to The Wave. Everyone who isn't part of it gets met with hostility. And so on.
 

BQE

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Jun 17, 2013
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Thread title assumptions strike again.

I'm sorry, I thought this thread may have been about interesting things crowds do in stadiums.

The premise sounds pretty interesting, I'd like to know what the book's title is (if it's not the same) as I do prefer reading to movies.
 

Amaror

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BQE said:
Thread title assumptions strike again.

I'm sorry, I thought this thread may have been about interesting things crowds do in stadiums.

The premise sounds pretty interesting, I'd like to know what the book's title is (if it's not the same) as I do prefer reading to movies.
Well i don't even know if it's translated.
The title of the book in German is "Die Welle", which translates into the name of the movie in english, which is "The Wave", so i would try that.
 

Queen Michael

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It is translated into English. A while ago I found it at the library.
BQE said:
The premise sounds pretty interesting, I'd like to know what the book's title is (if it's not the same) as I do prefer reading to movies.
It's The Wave, like the book.
 

Alleged_Alec

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Boris Goodenough said:
I thought it had first been filmized in English in 1981 and then in 2008 as the German movie?
Correct. If I recall correctly, it had Bruce Davidson as the teacher.
 

Saltyk

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Sep 12, 2010
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Considering some of the books I read in high school, I'm surprised we didn't read this one. Sounds like it would have been much better than much of the stuff they had us read.

Anyway, I haven't heard of it. So, I can't say that it is popular, but I don't think it is. At least, not in the US.
 

The_Echo

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I read The Wave in middle school. Pretty good read.

Didn't know there was a movie. Might have to check it out sometime.
 

Liv's Runaway Snail

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I remember watching it in college, it was pretty good. We had no copies of the translated version of the book though, unfortunately.
 

Amaror

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Boris Goodenough said:
I thought it had first been filmized in English in 1981 and then in 2008 as the German movie?
Maybe, but the version on netflix is definetly the 2008 german version. Which makes it even weiter.
 

Realitycrash

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Amaror said:
Boris Goodenough said:
I thought it had first been filmized in English in 1981 and then in 2008 as the German movie?
Maybe, but the version on netflix is definetly the 2008 german version. Which makes it even weiter.
There's first the English Book, then the English Movie, then the German Movie.

Read up on it from TvTropes. TvTropes are not a reliable source, but in this case, I doubt they have failed to do their research. I'm sure Wikipedia will say the same, just CBA to read Wiki atm. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/TheWave?from=Main.TheWave
 

Amaror

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Realitycrash said:
Amaror said:
Boris Goodenough said:
I thought it had first been filmized in English in 1981 and then in 2008 as the German movie?
Maybe, but the version on netflix is definetly the 2008 german version. Which makes it even weiter.
There's first the English Book, then the English Movie, then the German Movie.

Read up on it from TvTropes. TvTropes are not a reliable source, but in this case, I doubt they have failed to do their research. I'm sure Wikipedia will say the same, just CBA to read Wiki atm. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/TheWave?from=Main.TheWave
Hmm, seems like your right.
Weird i just assumed that the author was german, because we read it in german class and normally you don't read stuff in school that's not in it's native language. I even got the book right next to me, just to check if we didn't read it in english class in english and i just confused it, but nope it's translated into german.
... weird.
Ok, guess it's not that weird then if it's known outside of germany. I am just confused why netflix had a movie in german in it's library. As i said, they don't support germany.
 

WenisPagon

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It's a good book/movie, really drives home the point that Nazism wasn't some vile movement that emerged from a vacuum, but a manipulation of social structures appealing to the basest fears of ordinary people like you or me.
 

Mike Richards

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Technically when you watch or read it, it becomes 'The Particle'.

Sorry, sorry, physics joke. Anyways, I haven't ever heard of this but it looks like it could be interesting. Might have to check it out some time.
 

Mersadeon

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Ok, so a bit of an infodump on this: The 2008 german movie is quite different from the original book. It's still about the same plot, but one of the biggest things is that it's pretty modernised - with the stuff you would expect from modern youth.
The main character (ok, if we can call him that), the teacher, is played by Jürgen Vogel, who in Germany is known for being a pretty cool guy and making pretty good movies normally, but who never really goes into international stuff. Also, there is that old rumour that his teeth look like that because he filed them that way when he was a teenager - I think he debuffed that, and that it's actually just how his teeth look.

So, yeah, if you're looking for a modern retelling of that story, go for it! I really liked it, and as far as I know it was pretty much liked across the board over here. Even if it sometimes tries a bit to hard to look "hip".
 

ZZoMBiE13

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Mike Richards said:
Technically when you watch or read it, it becomes 'The Particle'.

Sorry, sorry, physics joke. Anyways, I haven't ever heard of this but it looks like it could be interesting. Might have to check it out some time.
Either way, they go down smooth.

Sorry, Futurama joke. Ah Bender, how you've enriched the lives of net-dwelling nerds.