Frederik Fisker Wæhrens
1 out of 10 says it all... I cannot believe that anyone can take this movie serious. It is so lame that an entire class and their lives can be turned around because of a stupid school project. It hurts me when I see this. In my opinion, it is the worst movie ever made (sure there are worse, but I have only been blessed with The Wave, as the lowest point in film history).The acting in the movie is fine. Bruce Davison does an excellent job playing Ben Ross. But the entire plot is unrealistic. I don't know if this could happen in any other country, but in Denmark, this is highly unlikely. It is unlikely that any students in Danish schools would embrace The Wave as they do in the movie. Therefore I deem this movie to be unrealistic, and that is why it annoys me to see the people in the movie freak-out over a school project. I mean, come on... !!!!!!
Edmund_Dantes
I don't know who the summary quote is from, but it is true. This is the message in Shakespeare's Julius Caeser, "I come not to praise Brutus, but to bury him." "The Wave" is based on a true experiment in a California high school. Most commentators missed that even the teacher was surprised at how well it worked. There is something in the human psyche that allows us to be manipulated. I think that persons who criticize the movie miss the point. I was very impressed and interested on the truism demonstrated in the story. People wonder how persons could follow Hitler or Stalin or their like and this movie shows just how easy it is to dupe the public. This is a very important message in a democracy.
Peter Grunbaum
This is a quite astonishing insight into the psychology of fascism and nazism. It's perfectly credible. Where can one buy the book? on Amazon? Can you rent it in a library? I'd like to read it very much. Anyway, I saw it when I was very young. I'm a child of the 80s and this is very much an 80s movie but that does not make it any less brilliant. 10/10.If I saw it today I would probably laugh at it. But is that not because I have become an "oppressor" myself? Again I cannot begin to emphasize how deeply this short TV-movie has burned into my mind and stays there embodying the truth of our awful (in)human condition. This should be shown in all schools all over the world and taken very seriously in group discussions. It is an antidote for fascism on the level of Nietzsche in so far he is an antidote for suppresive religion. I cannot begin to emphasize how grateful I am for the moral lesson of "The Wave". It is a teaching tool for anyone who wants to avoid violence in schools, sects, political parties or any other group. Amen.
Ramauras
The Wave was the first movie I ever made. I pitched the project to ABC and plunged forward. As an After School Special it was done on a very low budget, roughly $250,000 when an average Prime Time hour in those days was done for roughly $1,000,000. All acting and writing was done for scale fees and the number of shooting days were very few to hold down costs, As I remember it shot in 8 days. When ABC saw the final show they took it out of the After School slot and aired it in prime time against 60 Minutes on Sunday night. Needless to say the ratings were very low, but even at that, back in those days about 17 million people saw it in the States. And since then millions more have seen it around the world. I'm proud of the show and the message it delivers. As the years have gone by production styles and social behaviors have shifted, that's just the way it is. So be it, the show still seems to have legs. :>>
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