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Considerable talent intersects in Apt Pupil: It's director Bryan Singer's first film since The Usual Suspects, that enormously popular, rather heartless thriller-machine. The outstanding cast also includes David Schwimmer as a Jewish guidance counselor pathetically impotent in the face of Todd's talent for evil, and Bruce Davison as Todd's All-American Dad, lacking the capacity to even imagine evil. And the story itself has the potential for gazing into the heart of darkness right here in Hometown, U.S.A. But Apt Pupil just turns ugly and unclean when it trivializes its subject, equating Holocaust horrors with slamming a cat into an oven or offing a nosy vagrant (Elias Koteas). Reducing the great spiritual abyss that lies at the center of the 20th century to cheap slasher-movie thrills and chills is reprehensible. Both Todd and the writers of Apt Pupil should have heeded the old saw: When supping with the devil, best use a long spoon. --Kathleen Murphy
| ACTORS: | Brad Renfro, Ian McKellen |
| CATEGORY: | DVD |
| DIRECTOR: | Bryan Singer |
| THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE: | 23 October, 1998 |
| MANUFACTURER: | Columbia/Tristar Studios |
| MPAA RATING: | R (Restricted) |
| FEATURES: | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby |
| TYPE: | Feature Film-drama |
| MEDIA: | DVD |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
| UPC: | 043396223097 |
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Customer Reviews of Apt Pupil
Kings's novella chilling and effective on the big screen. This much we all know about Stephen King: first is the fact that he turns out 900-page books every 2 or 3 days. The second is that some are made into movies - which, by and large, haven't all been that well received. Apt Pupil, on the other hand, falls into a different category. Based on one of King's novellas, this little story translates quite well onto the big screen - helped out by fine acting and inspired direction.
Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro) is a bright youth with a kinky mind who begins to suspect that a particularly heinous kind of evil resides in his white-bread suburban neighborhood. It turns out that one of the community's senior citizens, Kurt Dussander, is actually a Nazi war criminal. Instead of telling the authorities however, the boy decides to blackmail the old guy and, with Nuremberg-like zeal, he collects enough historic and forensic data to convince Dussander he knows his true identity. Then, perhaps motivated by an evil that lurks in his own heart, the kid proceeds to pump the ancient monster for detailed accounts of his atrocities.
The disturbing relationship between old man and boy is alone compelling enough to sustain our interest. But as the two begin to engage in a psychological dance of wills, we start to grasp that the stakes in this mind game may be higher than we first supposed. Our focus fixes on Todd, who, as the balance of power between the two shifts, realizes that the price of the knowledge he seeks may be his very soul.
Part of the film's chill is generated by director Bryan Singer's knack for showcasing a King trademark - the frightening juxtaposition of true evil with the seemingly prosaic quality of everyday life. Blessed with an obviously good screenplay, Singer maintains a surprising amount of tension throughout, with adept manipulation of scenes revealing the story's twists and turns. Credit for this also goes to the actors - McKellan's goose-stepping scene develops goose bumps, as we catch a glimpse of the unspeakable evil lying behind his character's watery old eyes. And Renfro is both photogenic and effective as a disturbed adolescent with more brains then conscience.
If there is a problem with Apt Pupil, it is that the film is mildly in love with itself - becoming especially drawn out near the end. Some might also find the ending a bit anticlimactic.
Overall though, you won't be disappointed - and might even develop a tendency to gaze a bit longer than usual at the next old man you see on a bus.
Facinating study in evil....
The third film spun from a book by Stephen King (the others being Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption), Apt Pupil is adapted with skill from the book by director Bryan Singer.
The story centers around an intrepid young suburbanite who tracks down an elderly Nazi war criminal in his neighborhood. The teenager, Todd, (played by Brad Renfro) at first has the older man where he wants him and humiliates the Nazi Kurt Dussander (played masterfully by Sir Ian McKellan) and forces him to give him graphic accounts of his crimes, always hanging the evidence he has against him as the "sword of Damacles" over his head. However, through an interesting series of events, the teenager's school troubles result in a stunning reversal of fortune for Todd and he is forced by Dussander to do his bidding. All of the while, Todd is slowly becoming like the evil Dussander whom he despises and is facinated with. Todd's strange evolution from a pigeon killer to a cruel blackmailer and murderer is stunning.
David Schwimmer also has a great role as Todd's hapless guidance counselor Ed French. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool enemy of the TV show Friends, but Schwimmer's performance was excellent and gave me a newfound respect for him as an actor.
While most alterations of books in the translation from page to screen are almost always for the worst, the film version significantly alters the ending of the book for a vastly improved effect. The book ends in a typical Stephen King-esque gory way. The film's conclusion is more in-line with the subtle and creepy tone of the entire book and is much better than the book's ending.
The bottom line is that this is a vastly underrated movie (much like the Shawshank Redemption when it first came out in theaters) and another great adaptation coming from a Stephen King book (makes me wonder when someone is going to put out "The Breathing Method" on film).
"Well today I am going to tell you story about an old man.."
This movie was not a horror movie like the preview might stimulate it as being but it is more of a dark drama, until the middle when it starts going into the thriller genre. This movie was as good as it was because of one person, Ian Mckellen. He made the movie and put on a chilling performance as the Neighbor Nazi. The movie's ending I didnt expect it, but it did not have the huge twist like Usual Suspects, Singer's other movie, but I still thought it was neat. Overall for six dollars i felt that this movie was sure worth the price and i would have payed ten to see it.