APT PUPIL
"Apt Pupil" is another stunning examination of the nature of evil in the short oeuvre of director Bryan Singer. Remember his big hit, the Oscar winning "The Usual Suspects"? Think Keyser Soze in his formative years.
Brad Renfro plays the apt pupil, 16 year old Todd Bowden. He is a treasure to his family, an enigma to his best friend, and a roll model to his peers. He is both athletic and smart. Things come easy to Todd, but life bores him. History is the only subject that gets his blood running. When his class begins to study the Holocaust, it consumes him. Todd tries to imagine what it must have felt like to have lived it, first as a victim, then as an aggressor. He memorizes the names of places like Buchenwald and people like Eichman. Victims and murderers alike haunt his dreams. Then one day - quite by accident - on a bus full of people - one face - from the hundreds he has studied - looks like…
Could it be Kurt Dussander, one of the many Nazi war criminals who herded thousands to their deaths in the concentration camps? His face is not that of a killer. He is an old man wracked by age and alcohol. But, what do killers look like? What do monsters look like? Well, they look like you or me. Or even Todd’s grandfather. And that is the most curious thing of all: that this seemingly ordinary looking old man could have been an instrument of genocide. Or is he really Albert Denker, a German immigrant who lived out the war as a lowly orderly?
Like any good historian, Todd gathers evidence and documents his findings. Theory becomes fact.
If you’ve seen the great trailer for "Apt Pupil", you know Denker is Dussander, so, I’m not giving anything away here. "Apt Pupil" is a story about power, pure and simple. Knowledge is power and Todd has it. But instead of turning Dussander in to the authorities, he turns the guy into a living history project with an audience of one. He wants to know what made Dussander tick. What he doesn’t know is, Kurt is still ticking. He hasn’t survived to a ripe old age on his charm! He has eluded the world for more than half a century with his cunning and stealth. He is not about to be undone by an inexperienced high schooler. Todd has a lot to learn and Dussander is going to teach him whether he likes it or not!
It’s too easy to say "Apt Pupil" is about the corrupting influence of power. Bryan Singer and his screenwriter, Brandon Boyce, attempt to do more than show absolutes with Stephen King’s story. They leisurely reveal the step by step process that turns curiosity into fascination and fascination into something unexpected. Todd’s attempt at cruelty is treated like a young kid’s first utterance of "F..k you." Shocked, he wonders, "Did I say that?" Then he says "f u" again…, then again, …and again. Pretty soon the shock wears off and he’s f uing with the best of them! That’s the way it is with Todd. But it starts with Dussander.
Ian McKellan is brilliant as the reclusive curmudgeon reinvigorated by the freedom to talk about his past. His Dussander spins tales of torture and death, and narrow escapes, as if they were camp fire tales. Brad Renfro gives a brave performance that goes from the ambivalence of adolescence to the arrogance of a Hitler Youth.
Bryan Singer’s "Apt Pupil" is a masterpiece of style and content. Todd works out his self-image through coded dreams, while small vignettes of school life give the movie a sense of time and place. Suspense builds with the dissolution of Todd’s social life and the increase of Dussander’s influence. Questions beg to be answered. And just when you think you have all the answers, and the movie looks like it’s about to end, "Apt Pupil" takes off like a rocket to destinations unknown with an incendiary scene that is right up there with the best of Hitchcock(think "Psycho" or "Vertgo" for effect - not content). Incidental moments that invoke pathos for Kurt and add macabre humor to his relationship with Todd take on a broader significance. An act of mercy that leads to violence creates a whole new set of questions. Is Todd victim or victor? Is he really interested in the Holocaust or in assessing his own nature through the prism of Dussander’s experience? Is it also possible that Dussander is a victim of history? Could he have been like a kinder, gentler Todd in a different time, in another place? Could Todd be a Dussander in the making? Can one murderous act, like the utterance of one ‘f u’, lead to hundreds more? Only Todd Bowden, the apt pupil, can say for sure. His answer could send chills down your spine, or calm your worst fear. The only way to find out is to see "Apt Pupil." It’s a must!
Some video suggestions:
Another by Bryan Singer
"Public Access" (1992) - Directed by Bryan
Singer & co-written with Robert McQuarrie
A stranger comes to town and starts a show to find out what's 'wrong.'Not
a great movie but enough atmosphere to get the money to make their next
movie - "The Usual Suspects." It's worth a look just to see an
artist's first brush strokes. It has great visuals.
Ian McKellan donned a 'Nazi' uniform once before.
"Richard III" (1930) - Shakespeare's play
is updated with a Nazi motif. Ian is the merciless monarch!
.
A Brad Renfro must!
"Sleepers" (1996) - Brad is all kid who has to grow up fast at a reform school. This could have been a great movie if they stuck with the kids. Brad and his buddies come off like the Dead End kids from the late thirties and early forties. Does anybody know who Billy Halop is?
Movies that came to mind! - If they're not on video they do show up on Cable.
"The Bad Seed" (1956) - Based on the play
by Maxwell Anderson. The ending was
changed for the filmed version to conform to the Breen Code. Patty McCormack
(the Kirsten Dunst of the 50's) is bad. Very Bad!
"Tomorrow the World" (1944) - dated but controversial at the
time. An American
couple adopts their Nazi nephew and try to change him with tender love and
care.
Skip Homeier who went on to play tough guys in B movies is the kid.
"Hitler's Children" (1943) - Hollywood's version of the Hitler
Youth movement. Also
dated, but had the good sense to make the Nazis more complex than the typical
propaganda films of the time. Bonita Granville and Tom Holt are the 'children'.
Bonita did the Nancy Drew series in the thirties went on to produce and
Tim
a 'Magnificent Amberson' for Orson Welles.