A philosophical film review #1 The wave/Die welle

Philosophical film review

The wave/ die welle

A german film with english subtitles

With a wealth of philosophical meals leaving leftovers in the case of food for thought

More than the layout of the plot we will interfuse concepts and plot timings

We start with a teacher called rainer who is very unorthodox

We then get to the subject matter one not really touched on regarding the german's view of the nazi's and their legacy bouncing around a state of of annoyance of the topic to the saying those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it

This was the theme of the film the cloud they were cast under a risky move but considering how well the films production to this point i was intrigued

It started off with the question what is autocracy which was greeted with zero enthusiastic appeals and half assed answers for rainer to then answer this is when the brillaince of the film started he then questioned the students if it could happened again in germany they all waved if off

so he decided to do a practical thought based experiment so he starts of with minor changes such as a name change instead of rainer it is now mr wenger and to speak one must stand up understandly question arose but he claimed it made you more alert and made examples using students and their were some initial rebels which were dispelled but he made it their choice the very first signs of coercion some students even left but then notably returned he then started to use class participation turning it in for the students a hybrid of a practical lesson such a film documentary

over the days more changes were added put through the mouth of students drawing back to the source material like seeing a boy drawing art and suggesting he draw a logo and through oratation of a collective philosophy have the students spring into action proposing making websites and creating cohesiveness by saying the students do it together

he even gets the students to march but never addressing it as such but merely exercise which will bring union  and that it will annoy their enemies( the class he was meant to teach instead of autocracy) next uniform is introduce he asks the students their view on this and they agree the viewer can slowly see the transition going on here

one girl comes in to class without the uniform and feels alienated and is even ignored by the teacher and her suggestion regarding the name is overlooked she then stops coming to class and becomes an enemy of the now labelled movement this movement expands to the streets vandalisms and acts of violence

The questions brought forth by this movie are things such as the power of rhetoric and the power of the collective or the herd peoples longing for the other and what they can forsake in themselves for it reminding me of this quote

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

Friedrich Nietzsche
German philosopher (1844 - 1900)  

Also the power of groups and political models and what happens when we view another as the other and not as another self such as the uniforms were not just an attempt to establish the slef but to differentiate from the other

And how powerful ideas are and memetic nature they expressed for later in the film acts happen which are further down the fascist paths such as salutes and salutes to enter certain places intimidation to join the movement

also how quick this happened all within a week at a school of people well aware of the subject matter 

opening doors of thought to how a perfect if their can be perfect world could or would be run and that the world is based on to things force and persuasion when one fails you used the other

it also questions your stand and mental fortitude would you have been swept up with the wave would you be a rebel faction or just a middle man for it is easy to say in hindsight you would of not sided with the nazi's but would you have perhaps you are but it is under a different name

what strikes you is the way he got them to do all these openly fascist things without them expressing so much content and how they would lose themselves in the collective such as the famous experiment in america with the stanford prison experiment