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Apt Pupil
One day in 1984, Todd Bowden, a brilliant high school boy fascinated by the history of Nazism, stumbles across an old man whose appearance resembles that of Kurt Dussander, a wanted Nazi war criminal. A month later, Todd decides to knock on his door.
1998 · Directed by Bryan Singer · 107 min · Drama · Thriller · Screenplay in the scene database · 6 frames
Tagline
If you don't believe in the existence of evil, you've got a lot to learn
Plot
In 1984 Southern California, 16-year-old high school student Todd Bowden discovers that his elderly neighbor, Arthur Denker, is actually Kurt Dussander—a former Nazi concentration camp commandant, who is now a fugitive war criminal. Todd, fascinated with Nazi atrocities perpetrated during World War II, blackmails Dussander, forcing him to share disturbing stories of what it was like working at Nazi extermination camps and how it felt to participate in genocide.
Todd purchases an SS uniform from a costume shop and forces Dussander to wear it. As he spends more time with Dussander, his schoolwork suffers, he loses interest in his girlfriend, and he conceals his bad grades from his parents. Dussander begins blackmailing Todd in return, forcing him to work to restore his grades by threatening to expose the subterfuge and his dalliance with Nazism to his parents. Dussander even poses as Todd's grandfather and goes to an appointment with Todd's school counselor Edward French. Talking about the war crimes affects both the old man and the young boy. An intoxicated Dussander tries and fails to kill a cat with his gas oven. Dussander also takes pride in Todd's remarkable turnaround, going from near-dropout to straight-A student in a matter of weeks.
One night, Dussander tries to kill a homeless person who earlier had seen him in the uniform. When Dussander has a heart attack, he calls Todd, who finishes the killing, cleans up, and calls an ambulance for Dussander. At the hospital, Dussander is recognized by a death camp survivor sharing his room. He is arrested and an extradition to Israel is arranged. Todd graduates as valedictorian and gives a speech about Icarus, saying, "All great achievements arose from dissatisfaction. It is the desire to do better, to dig deeper, that propels civilization to greatness." The scene is juxtaposed in a montage with Dussander's home being searched and the corpse being found in the basement.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Brandon Boyce
- Cinematography: Newton Thomas Sigel
- Edited by: Peter S. Elliot, John Ottman
- Music: John Ottman
- Production design: Richard Hoover
- Produced by: Jane Hamsher, Bryan Singer, Don Murphy
Cast
- Ian McKellen as Kurt Dussander
- Brad Renfro as Todd Bowden
- Bruce Davison as Richard Bowden
- Elias Koteas as Archie
- Joe Morton as Dan Richler
- Jan Tříska as Isaac Weiskopf
- Michael Byrne as Ben Kramer
- Heather McComb as Becky Trask
- Ann Dowd as Monica Bowden
- Joshua Jackson as Joey
Production
- Country: France, United States of America
- Language: English, German
- Studios: Bad Hat Harry Productions, Canal+ Droits Audiovisuels, Phoenix Pictures
- Budget: $14,000,000
- Box office: $8,863,193
- Themes: high school, based on novel or book, secret identity, troubled teen, nazism, 1980s, school counselor, nazi war criminal, gay theme
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