The Wave

This movie had a great impact on me. Having personally been a victim of peer abuse, it really opened up my eyes as to what kind of effect a 'cult' can play on an individual. This concept not only explains how Hitler managed to be so successful in manipulating the whole country, but also clarifies many other historical events. I would recommend this to anyone who has not seen the movie!

"The Wave" is based on Ron Jones's experiment in a high school class that he taught. He had been teaching his students about the Third Reich, and the students refused to believe that the people of Germany couldn't have known what the Nazis were doing. So, he started a club called The Wave that called for discipline among the students, and punishment for anyone who stepped out of line. Sure enough, everyone went along with it.

Bruce Davison plays a fictionalized version of Jones, tricking the students into following a totalitarian entity. The point is that people will go along with the evilest acts without realizing that anything bad is happening. And you can't stop the descent into malevolence until it's too late. A lesson for everyone everywhere.

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. :>>

Based on a real incident at an American high school in 1967, this short TV movie shows the horror of mob psychology and group pressure. The high school teacher gives his students a lesson in the history of Nazi Germany, not by having them read a chapter in a book but by turning them into Nazis -- without their even being aware that it is happening.

The film should be part of every school's curriculum. The tendency toward in-groups and gangs is strong amongst teens, and the tragic consequences can be seen periodically in the news headlines. This film is a warning of the potential that lurks within us all.

I saw this movie when I was in my teens, so it might be cheesy if I saw it now. Part of some after-school special. Have not seen it since. I remember it though, vividly. I just went through "diversity training" at work. We got to do a bit of talking..."Hi, I'm Taj, and I'm not yet diverse..."

I think it was some sort of cynical effort by my company, to avoid lawsuits, but, whatever, it was manditory. There were a few things that got my attention. We saw two films, both of which were disturbing. one had a teacher who conducted an experiment in the 1960's (right after Martin Luther King's assasination). She had blue-eyed students as the alpha-group the first day, and the brown-eyed students the second day. These kids got a first-hand view of discrimination at its finest, and it changed their views radically by the end of the experiment. The second film had two friends(one black, one white) uproot from a major metro area to a small town and the film crew trailed them for a bit to see how they dealt with day-to-day transactions. The results were frightening and pathetically sad. I had to rethink some of my own ideas. I would like to think that growing up in the east-coast, in major cities, that some stereotypes would be dead and buried. But, unfortunately, I'm no longer think that is the case. I wish I could see this movie again, I haven't seen it in a long time, but I remember it. The whole mob mentality thing stuck with me.

I'm sure I would find it cheesy now, but for some reason, I keep thinking about it every once in awhile. And I wish it wasn't a true story.