Die Welle Analysis

“The Wave” and “Die Welle”

Walter Benjamin says that “story telling is always the art of repeating stories”, In this essay I will examine the adaptation of the “Die Welle” and “The Wave”. According to Hutcheon western culture is used to make adaptations but in this case we are facing with different approach(A Theory of Adaptation, 4). The original TV movie made in US 1981, and German writer-director adapted it 2008 in Germany. According to Hutcheon "...adaptations have an overt and defining relationship to prior texts, usually revealing called "sources",... adaptations usually openly announce this relationship."(A Theory of Adaptation, 3). We clearly see that bond between two films. On the other hand we also see different endings, transnational

“The Third Wave”. According to Mark Hancock who is the third wave student, “It began as a game in class, was initially fun, and school grades depended on active participation. Ron Jones was the most popular teacher in school, young, and very charismatic. The students had already been in the class with him for 6 months, they trusted him, and this was not the first experiment they had done in class. When it became "real" there was promise of a new national student movement that would do a better job running the country than the current "establishment" Democrats and Republicans who were pursuing the Viet Nam war. The boys in class were about 2 years from being subject to the military draft and being forced to fight in that war by the government (they also needed good grades to get into college where they could be deferred from military service). Peer pressure played a role, and for some students it was much more - a chance to be part of something greater than themselves, part of a group, part of a special group...” (Die Welle & The Third Wave - Official Resource.). When we are looking to the real situation and 1981 film “The Wave”, Hancock mentions that there were no uniforms there were only membership cards and armbands and he mentions about accuracy “It is very close, without the pounding on the chest that was added by Hollywood.”. And the case of “Die Welle” he says that“The Die Welle movie tells the Wave story in a high school setting in present-day Germany, and it is updated with more contemporary elements. The beginning conveys well the fun at the beginning of the original Third Wave class, and while the students in the film ultimately get more carried away than they did in 1967, the lessons are the same. There was no "Project Week" at Cubberley - The Third Wave was simply an isolated lesson in a history class.” . Further more if we can put fidelity aside we can say that