10. Apt Pupil (1998)
Todd, a 16 year old high school boy living in California in 1984, discovers that his neighbour is really a Nazi fugitive war criminal called Kurt Dussander. Todd is a sick young man with a taste for Nazi war atrocities. He blackmails Dussander into telling him all about the Holocaust and Nazi Genocide. Todd is so obsessed, his grades at school suffer and his life begins to go down the swanny. He gets the old man to impersonate his grandfather and go down to his school to account for Todd's poor grades. Dussander takes great pride in Todd when he pulls his stuff together and starts getting As again in his school work. All of this talk of Nazism and Genocide has 'livened' Dussander up and he goes to kill a hobo - who had earlier spotted him clad as a Nazi. However he has a heart attack and he has to call Todd out to finish the job and get an ambulance. In his hospital bed, Dussander is recognised for who he truly is by another patient who had lived through the Holocaust and recognises him. The authorities seek extradition to Israel. Meanwhile, Todd does very well for himself - graduating as Valedictorian. He is questioned by the police but says he had no knowledge of Dussander's real identity. Dussander commits suicide. When the school counsellor learns of Dussander's identity, and that he was not Todd's grandfather he confronts Todd. The wily Todd tells the counsellor that if he blows the whistle, Todd will tell the world he made sexual advances towards him - thereby outing him as a paedophile and a pederast. Apt Pupil is a fantastic adaptation of the novella by Stephen King. First of all it stars Sir Ian McKellen as Kurt Dussander. When does Ian McKellen ever hit a bum note? The man is a legend. It is not particularly a horror book but it is - with all the glorifying of Nazism, Genocide and War crimes - quite horrific. It is one of King's more character driven pieces where warped relationships are the driving force behind the film. Apparently director Bryan Singer read Apt Pupil as a 19 year old and always had a burning ambition to direct a movie adaptation of the novella. He says that King is very happy with the result of the film. Critics were mixed and guarded in their reviews of the film - praising McKellen's performance but complaining about a lack of over all message and the presentation of dark subject matter such as The Holocaust. Singer had - prior to Apt Pupil - directed The Usual Suspects which was highly acclaimed - and Apt Pupil was viewed as a failure in its wake. I appreciate the movie as a study in evil - it is remarkable when Todd gets Kurt to dress up as a Nazi and have him march. All of a sudden, Kurt is not an ordinary old man accused of war crimes. He is at that moment a dedicated Nazi who gets off on his power and the Nazi Regalia. It is brought home to the viewer the crimes Kurt is responsible for, how he colluded with the Nazis and it is utterly horrifying.