La ola

They could’ve gone a step further with such a strong and compelling topic and stayed at the school desk and avoid dragging it into “everyday life" (I think the debate scenes in the classroom during the first two days of the project are the most powerful part of the movie). But it does fulfil the purpose of being disturbing while not being tedious to a t and, considering it is not exactly a picture where “you forget what it was about the minute the credits stop rolling", it actually works out perfectly. I just envisioned it would be more theoretical. La resistance! (25.01.2009)

Finally our school sent us to watch a good film. The manipulation of the students to turn them into fanatics is shown very fast to meet the needs of the 100 minute runtime, but it still fulfils its purpose. The wave is not surprising, the outcome is predictable almost from the beginning, but the last five minutes or so are quite intense. (07.11.2008)

An interesting film, in many ways similar to American History X, mainly because it can easily serve as a film intended to be shown in schools and can be contemplated and discussed during civics lessons. Unfortunately, just like its American sibling, it suffers from simplification and schematism, which detracts from its persuasiveness and authenticity. I do not diminish the impact of The Wave and what it wants to convey, as it does so clearly and effectively. But in reality, it wouldn't work like this. The point is that a similar pathological process could occur somewhere in a closed community without access to the media and disruptive influences of relatives, friends, and state power. The present time does not favor totalitarian ideologies based on mass participation at all, because it is highly atomized due to the information explosion and the ubiquitous influence of the media. These students are of different nationalities, religions, and cultures, and the cohesive element is harder to find than in the 1930s. Moreover, the film directed by Dennis Gansel suffers from the overblown ending with the smell of gunpowder and iron on the hands. It is probably because the message to teenagers had to be as powerful as possible, but in this case, less would have been more. Overall impression: 65%. (05.05.2011)

There was a school leader without a concept, a confused Hess with a gun, propaganda ministers with spray cans, and the resistance of Sophie Scholl. It’s just a shame that the director was Von Stauffenberg conducting an assassination on his own film. This school project gone awry suffers not only from television-like direction and amateur performances by high school students, but also from overall implausibility. The fact that a week is far too short a time to form such a movement, that the vast majority of its members didn’t live in conditions that would explain such an easy process of manipulation, and that the students represented almost the entire social spectrum (only missing an emo girl and a pimply nerd with ashtrays on their eyes) I could overlook within the dramatization, but their fanatical cohesion without any common goal or motivation (hatred, dissatisfaction, a sense of injustice, or in this case, maybe cleaning up the school yard from trash) already smelled like a construct, clumsily fitted onto the skeleton of fascist ideological principles. Unless it was a special school, then fine. Germans need to try harder in their self-reflection. (07.10.2014)

The answer to every action is a reaction! When you irritate a bee, it stings you! If you drink poison, you get poisoned! If you want to "play" dictatorship, you have to watch this distinctive German-produced film. In many ways, especially in terms of atmosphere, The Wave reminded me of the Estonian film The Class, which may be why I wasn't as satisfied at the end as I originally wanted to be. But I can still highly recommend it. In short, as the saying goes, everyone must suffer the consequences of their actions. (18.11.2011)