Is it possible for a person to be an accessory after the fact to a crime that was committed twenty-four years before they were born? This is one of the questions that the film "Apt Pupil" asks. But, the film does more than this. It is a thought-provoking film which demonstrates the potential for evil that exists in human beings. .
The story is about a teenage boy, Todd Bowmen, a straight "A" student who has lettered in sports. He is fascinated with the holocaust, a subject he is studying in sociology class. One day, when going home on the bus, he recognizes an old Nazi war criminal named Kurt Dussander, a.k.a. Arthur Denker. Todd goes to the old man's house and tells him that he will not report him in exchange for stories about the old man's duties in the concentration camps. Todd becomes the "apt" pupil because the old Nazi is the catalyst that encourages the growth of the boy's dark side. .
WARNING: This review analyzes the message in the film by looking at the characters, the themes, and the plot. To do this it is necessary to look at the entire story, beginning to end. Therefore, if you have not seen the film, please stop reading now; then, after you've seen the film, please come back. .
The film opens in a high school sociology class in which the topic is the holocaust. The first thing we hear is the teacher summing up his lesson:.
And still the question remains? Was it economic, was it social, or was it simply a matter of human nature? What is it that made some people do what they did and other people to do nothing at all?.
This is the key question the film attempts to answer. It does so through the symbol of the open door. The open door is established early in the film: .
TODD: What did it feel like?.
DUSSANDER: It was just something that had to be done. A door had been opened and couldn't be shut. It was the end. You don't understand.
Opening the door represents, first, the specific unleashing of evil within Hitler's Germany.
Title: Everything's Eventual Author: Stephen King I'll start off my book report with "Lunch at the Gotham Café." This is the cover story of the book. This story I think was one of the best short stories that good ol' Steve has ever written. My favorite being "The Body- from the book Differ...
These two styles are mostly linked together since if a person can learn both visually and verbally, they are apt to excel easier. ... With all the different learning styles and combinations in the classroom, the question of how will the teacher get to help all of their pupils comes up. ...
Eventually the word began to be used for the secret knowledge imparted by the guru to his selected pupils. ... Monotheism, it has been aptly stated "contemplates the Divine in heaven and polytheism contemplates the Divine in the universe. ...
In The Politics, Aristotle devotes much of the text to criticizing many of Plato's views contained in Republic. These criticisms range from the over-unified state to the perpetual happiness of Plato's farming and merchant class including every notion of Plato's in between. However, Plato did not r...
In notes to his pupils Chopin wrote, "Listen to great singers. ... He, from a very young age had a soul for music, "Frederic was apt to burst into tears when he heard a piano.""20 Frederic as an adolescent developed as a pianist and grew to love music. ...
H.G. Wells' books told of futures of humankind evolving into smarter beings through science. His books also predicted humankind would destroy itself. Some times Wells had readers that liked his books and told everybody about them, sometimes he had people that would hold riots trying to persuade pe...
The family moves from the room to a terraced house next to the river, although hovel is a more apt description. ... They recognise the injustice of boys not having shoes and won't stand any teasing about it, and yet spend much of their time whacking the pupils with leather belts. ...
English novelist, story writer, critic, poet and painter Lawrence is one of the greatest figures in 20th-century English literature. Lawrence's doctrines of sexual freedom arose obscenity trials, which are still part of the relationship between literature and society. He saw sex and intuition as a k...
