Bits and bobs

I got a Creative Zen x-fi 2 on Mother’s Day from my son and he transferred some films to it. I have just seen one of them “The Wave”. I was deeply impressed by how easily people can be manipulated, above all teenagers.

Dennis Gansel’s film “The Wave” poses the question, what led to the rise of the Nazis, and could it happen again?
The setting is in a prosperous town in present-day Germany, it is based in a high school populated by affluent, intelligent students and staff. A class of teenagers sits bored at the prospect of a lesson about fascist autocracy. Their history teacher, Herr Wenger, seems equally unenthusiastic.
He invites his students to participate in an experiment. For the next week the students will stand up to speak in class, address him as Sir and answer all the questions succinctly. He teaches them to sit up straight at their desks, to help each other out and to breathe correctly. Instead of rebelling, the students accepted gladly these new rules.

What begins as a playful study in psychological manipulation soon runs out of hands.
The group quickly begins to grow. They name themselves “The Wave”, invent a especial salute, devise a logo (a stylised wave), adopt a uniform (white shirt and jeans), create a My Space page, and exclude and persecute dissidents and non-conformists.
New students soon join “The Wave”. By midweek the students have been transformed into an ersatz Hitler Youth and they don’t realise how quickly they are mimicking mistakes of the past. Mistakes they all thought could never happen again.
A climax is unavoidable, resulting in a hard lesson for both Wenger and his students.

A great film. It is a must see for everyone, but especially for the young.