Here comes a review about my latest project: This time I've chosen Morton Rhue's "The Wave" published in 1981. I think some of you maybe have heard about its story or have watched the movie, but now I also want to write about my impressions of both, the novel and the film. At first I'll summarize the main story based on the book and comment on it, and later I'll compare it with the movie version. So let's start!
(Annotation: I've read the novel in German, so sorry in case of confusing vocabulary...)
 |
| The edition of the novel I've read: From Ravensburger, published in 1997 |
The story has no single protagonist but describes the thoughts and actions of various persons: There is a group of pupils at Gordon High School, as well as the teacher Ben Ross plays an important role. At first the surroundings and the schoolchildren are introduced: The girl Laurie Sanders is the chief editor of the non-working school newspaper, her friend Amy Smith is always competing with her. David Collins, Laurie's boyfriend and an enthusiastic football player, as well as Brian Ammon, his good friend, also play important roles. Besides to this group of friends there is another boy with important meaning later in the story: The outsider Robert Billings. On the other hand the young and motivated teacher Ben Ross is one of the main characters. His main subject is history and he always tries to interest the pupils for his lessons by innovative teaching methods.
The action of the story rises when Ben Ross shows his course a documentary about nationalsocialism and the Nazi regime. Most of the children are shocked about the cruelity of the concentration camps, and the pupils are convinced that such a crime never could happen again in a democratic society; they also can't understand why the people haven't done something against the mass muder and followed the Reich without thinking for themselves. Laurie and Amy can't forget about the documentary also after the lesson at lunch break while David and Brian claim it is just history: It was disgusting and inhuman, but now the killing is over and never will happen again.
In the meantime Ben Ross isn't satisfied with the result of the lesson: He has moved the pupils, but they still didn't seem to have realized the meaning of the Nazis' mass murder. Moreover he wasn't able to answer some questions properly and now thinks about how he can make his pupils feel how it was to live in a nationalsocialist society. He starts reading lots of literature about the Third Reich and constructs a new stratetgy of teaching. In a first try he introduces his new lesson concept to the course, and surprisingly everybody agrees with trying it out - most of the children think it is just a game and a method of catching their interest for the historical content. The feedback is throughoutly positive, and Ben continues teaching in this more strict but also more effective way some more lessons until the pupils get used to it. The three leading slogans of the concept are "Strength through discipline!", "Strength through community!" and "Strength through action!".
Slowly the class realizes that they acheive bigger success by disciplined actions and supporting each other; the team spirit grows and also the outsider Robert Billings now becomes accepted in the group where every member is equal. Most pupils start working more precisely and do their homework, averagely the results improve; because everybody wants to contribute to the group's success. The negative effect is that the children just learn historical facts by heart without thinking about their meanings and the pros and cons of political systems - they don't learn to question history anymore but just regard everything as happened.
Ben Ross at first just wanted to spend some lessons for this project and then stop it again, but when he realizes it brings more success and better results he decides to continue it some longer. He also invents a symbol for the group: The Wave. The pupils start to greet each other with a wave-shaped hand movement, and Ben encourages his pupils to understand their community as a movement compared to a wave: Powerful, overwhelming and unstoppable. Although he knows it can't have a good effect on the children being under permanent control he becomes pleased by the power he receives in his position of the ultimate leader.
The project works without problems in the history class, but soon the situation starts to get out of control: More and more pupils also from other courses want to participate in the lessons and want to become a member of The Wave; besides to this the children continue with the group's principles also outside the lessons. For example David is fascinated about the power of the team spirit and wants to conduct it on the baseball team: He hopes then the team will improve and be successful in matches against other schools. The most remarkable positive improvement reveals when observing Robert Billings: He eagerly starts to work and gets better grades every time, and he also mentally profits from the acceptation of his comrades. He becomes the most important, nearly fanatic supporter of The Wave.
The longer the project continues, the more suspicious Laurie becomes about it: Is everything still a game, or has Ben lost control over the movement? The school seems split: Members of The Wave exclude other pupils and force them to participate, regard themselves as something better and more important. Laurie starts to disagree with the principles because she foreshadows the possible consequences - and starts suffering by herself: She gets into quarrels with her proponent Amy, and David even breaks up with her. Laurie feels the need to do something against the movement and decides to create a special edition of the school newspaper where she wants to open the readers' eyes for the true character of The Wave. The situation escalates when a jewish boy gets beaten by Wave members and parents start to complain about strange changes of their children. The director scolds Ben Ross several times and commands him to stop the project, but although Ben realizes he has gone too far he insists on continuing the project to a certain point: He wants the pupils to realize the destructive power and cruelity of the system by themselves - if a teacher tells them it was just a game and they now have to stop they wouldn't have learned "the maybe most important lesson of their life".
In the meantime the special edition of the school newspaper is published and causes uproar, but also leaves some pupils thoughtful. Suddenly not everybody still approves The Wave anymore, and Laurie receives an anonymus letter where a desparate younger schoolchild tells her about the pressure he suffered from when older Wave members tried to force him to participate. Ben's class, especially Robert who has become the leader's personal guard, sees potential of danger in the issue and wants to eliminate Laurie as an enemy. But then David starts to realize that it maybe was a mistake to break up with her just because of the project: Since the jewish boy was bullied he also became suspicious of The Wave. He decides to talk with his ex-girlfriend again, and when conferring about the results of the movement they come to the conclusion that Ben Ross needs to end The Wave. They visit their teacher in the evening and beg him for stopping the project, and Ben promises he has a plan to stop the fanatism - although he has lost control, is desperate and without idea himself in this moment. The pupils trust him a last time, and finally Ben comes up with a plan: The next day he announces that The Wave will become a part of a national youth movement with a higher leader; the contribution will be celebrated in the assembly hall the afternoon by a live stream in the TV on a wide screen. All members of The Wave come together at the meeting point, and now the most difficult part of the disillusion begins: Nobody appears on the screen, and when a pupil mentions this Ben explains that there is no leader and they have followed a hallucination. "You've lost the ability to think for yourselves and have become the same as the Nazis these days" - these words leave the pupils shocked, and after a few minutes the whole project of The Wave collapses and leaves confused and deeply moved children behind. Although everything seems to be alright again the resolving of the movement carries negative consequences: For example Robert Billings looses his improved position in the group and returns to his outsider role. The novel ends with Robert and Ben leaving the assembly hall because the teacher wants to explain everything closer to the boy - and Rhue leaves the reader with a sudden but resolved end.
In my opinion this novel is a very neatly work, and I would recommend it to everybody who wants to understand human social group behaviour and mass psychology better, as well as its impact on the Nazi society. It is written in an understandable language and can be read also by people who have few previous knowledge of the topic; moreover it's not too long and I've read through it within one day, approxmately I've needed five to six hours. Besides to the simple and relaxed way of reading the story instantly ties you up and you want to know how Ben Ross will solve the giant problem he has brought up - I was tense for the whole time, but in a more enjoyable way than like in crime or thriller literature. Nevertheless, the shocking fact is that the story is based on a real occassion that has happened in America and is no literary invention. So you should read this novel with the steady thought in your mind that this whole story is based on reality.
As a final conclusion I would rate this novel with five of five possible stars - realistic, shocking, tense! Absolutely worth reading!
 |
| The cover of the movie from 2008 |
Now the comparison of the novel and the movie! My first impression was that the film itself is made very good, but it completely differs from the original version. The main idea and the real background is still the same, but also because it's a German production all names and many details are changed; moreover the story doesn't take place in the 80's but in time around the publication date 2008, and includes more modern equipment etc.
Some closer comparisons: At first the names of the main characters were changed: The girls Amy and Laurie are now called Lisa and Caro, David and Robert became Marco and Tim, and Ben Ross is transformed in Rainer Wenger. At the beginning the pupils call the teacher by his first name, but when the Wave project gets more serious they change to the more formal Mr. Wenger - in the novel this authority was present all the time.
The idea for the autocracy lessons didn't arise from the usual history lessons but was called into life from a project week, most likely shortly before summer vacations. The pupils chose the class voluntarily, and also they haven't seen a documentation about the nazi regime but start discussing about it by themselves. As German pupils they already have had the knowledge about Hitler, in opposite to the American pupils in the novel.
The name of the movement isn't decided by the teacher but wins after a plenum vote before other suggestions. Caro/Laurie is not only the chief editor of the school's newspaper but also is the leader of a theatre group, and Marco doesn't play in a baseball but in a waterball team - moreover Mr. Wenger is his coach here. So the boy and the other main characters have an even stronger connection to him.
In the movie the class additionally decides to wear a "uniform": The next day everybody except the critical Caro and another girl appear in a white shirt - the other girl changes the class when the project becomes too suspicious to her. The novel doesn't pay much attention to this aspect that shall emphasize the feeling of solidarity of a group.
The strong connection between the members is highlighted much more in the film: There the "Wavers" are so convinced from their project that they start a graffiti spraying tour through the city - and Tim, the outsider who suddenly gets integrated, even risks his life when climbing up construction work scaffoldings to spray the symbol on a wall. All these details are completely left out in the novel.
Of course also some modernizations are used: Instead of printing an information flyer Tim creates an own homepage, and the younger boy complaining about being bullied appears as an anonymus comment in the internet, not as a letter in the editor's bureau.
I don't want to loose myself in too many details because the biggest and most important change was made with Robert alias Tim. While the novel doesn't focus on but depicts him as the outsider positively profiting from The Wave, he plays a more dramatic part here - the most dramatic part of the whole movie, I would say. The scene with the personal guardian also appears, but there are some other details added: One evening he flees from home and searches shelter at Mr. Wenger's house boat where he spend the evening with him and his wife. Tim is also the reason why the whole film becomes a tragedy instead of just staying a serious story: When Mr. Wenger ends the project his wonderful new world breaks down, but contrary to the novel he can't accept it but takes out a gun and forces the teacher to call The Wave back into life again. The situation escalates when he completely desparate shoots one of the boys, who doesn't die but later is taken to hospital and survived. Although Mr. Wenger tries his best to calm down Tim he isn't able to stop him from his final deed: He commits suicide by shooting himself in the mouth. The last scenes of the film show the arriving police, mentally broken pupils sitting on the street and Mr. Wenger being taken by the officers.
I would rate the similarity-differences quota as 20%-80%, but that only concerns the details and frame work, not the main story and the content. The message behind both the novel and the movie remains the same: Autocracy is still possible if we don't pay enough attention to what we are doing and when the movement gets out of control.
I also recommend the film as a very good depiction of the problem if you are more the type of watching a movie instead of reading a novel; all in all it gets four and a half of five possible stars from me.
No matter whether you decide in favour of reading the novel or watching the movie (or, in optimal case, both) - both ways are perfect for getting confronted in an easy and nevertheless educational way with a difficult and serious topic. I really recommend to read/watch it by yourself to get a better impression of what I want to indicate to.
You liked it? Let me know in the comments~
See you at my next project!
Junsui
No comments:
Post a Comment