Apt Pupil (film)
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| Apt Pupil | |
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| Directed by | Bryan Singer |
| Produced by | Jane Hamsher Don Murphy |
| Starring | Ian McKellen Brad Renfro David Schwimmer |
| Music by | John Ottman |
| Cinematography | Newton Thomas Sigel |
| Editing by | John Ottman |
| Running time | 111 min. |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Apt Pupil is a 1998 film, directed by Bryan Singer and starring Ian McKellen and Brad Renfro. The screenplay by Brandon Boyce is adapted from a novella of the same name by Stephen King, originally published in Different Seasons (1982). The endings of the two works differ drastically, however.
[edit] Plot
Todd Bowden is sixteen and a smart kid with good grades. He is studying the Holocaust in school, and becomes quite interested in it. He begins to read everything he can get his hands on about World War II and Nazi concentration camps.
One day he sees an old man on the bus that he recognizes. He goes to his house and rings the bell. The sign on the door says "Arthur Denker," but when the door opens Todd calls him "Kurt Dussander." He has recognized him as the commandant of the (fictional) Nazi concentration camp at Patin. At first the old man denies everything, repeating that his name is Denker. As Todd gives him more and more details - especially how he obtained Dussander's fingerprints from his mailbox and came up with multiple positive results comparing the prints to his wanted poster - he finally admits to being Kurt Dussander.
However, he finds out that Todd isn't out to expose him (although he threatens to do this if Dussander doesn't do what he wants) and he's not interested in money (his family is shown in the film to be pretty well-off). What he wants is to hear is "everything they're afraid to show us in school" about the camps. Dussander is reluctant, but finally caves in to Todd's threats of exposure.
Dussander regales Todd with stories about the specific atrocities he committed or witnessed over the course of a month. During one particular story about his experience at the concentration camp, Dussander comments that the sounds of the limbs of corpses settling in a fire sounded "a bit like the sound of blowing leaves." Todd asks, "what did it feel like?" With a slight pause, Dussander answers, "it was something that had to be done... A door had been opened and it couldn't be shut."
Later in the film, Todd brings Dussander a present. It turns out to be a costumer's SS-Obersturmbannführer's uniform. Todd forces Dussander to put it on. Dussander then comments sarcastically, "I see I've been promoted" after he dons the uniform (it is of a higher rank than he held during his service). Apologetic at first for the incorrect rank, he then forces Dussander to march around on command. Dussander mockingly obeys initially, but then seems to go into a trance - scaring Todd into stopping him. Physically and psychologically exhausted, Dussander tells Todd, "Boy, be careful... You play with fire."
As Todd spends lots of time with Dussander, his performance at school is beginning to slip. To his parents he says that he helps the old man to read books that he can't see to read himself. He begins to have nightmares about the camps and his grades slip further. He is also so distracted that he cannot gain sexual satisfaction from his new girlfriend.
Dussander on the other hand begins to embrace his past - this is demonstrated by his attempt to incinerate a stray cat that wanders into his backyard by forcing it into his kitchen oven. He fails, but the attempt seems to awaken fond memories in him as he smokes a cigarette lit from the oven flames.
Finally, it is shown that Todd is in danger of flunking several courses. He receives his midterm grade reports along with a letter from the school Guidance Counselor - Ed French - inviting his parents to a meeting in order to discuss his poor grades and increasingly poor performance. He attempts to work out his troubles by shooting basketball free-throws in the gym by himself. Suffering from mental anguish from Dussander's stories and anger over his poor midterm grades, he can't concentrate and ends up throwing the ball too hard to make a basket. A wounded pigeon with a broken wing wanders into the gym and he brings himself to kill it with his basketball. This seems to satisfy Todd and he leaves the gym.
Later that day at Dussander's home, Todd frantically attempts to forge his father's signature so that he can avoid having them meet French. Dussander is unsympathetic with Todd's plight until Todd threatens him again with exposure. Dussander then steps in and claims to help Todd by forging his father's signature for him - he comments, "I was forging documents before your parents were born." Todd believes things are taken care of, but he is surprised when he is mysteriously summoned to French's office. He discovers Dussander having a friendly chat with French, discussing French's son. Bewildered, Todd takes a seat. Dussander then informs Todd that he has "told French everything" and eventually it is exposed that Dussander is impersonating Todd's grandfather, Victor. Dussander concocted a story that Todd was suffering from a broken home situation - complete with his father having business troubles and his mother having an "alcohol problem." Todd is dumbstruck, but Dussander has convinced French so utterly that he decides to break a few rules and leaves Todd in the hands of his "grandfather" to raise his grades in three weeks. French decides to leave Todd's parents out of the situation and tells Todd that if he gets straight A's on all his final exams, he will have Todd's teachers throw out his poor midterm grades. French then gives Todd his telephone number and tells him that despite his divorce, he is ready to help and that Todd should contact him any time to talk.
By now Dussander tells Todd that he is as deeply entrenched as he is. Todd knows that Dussander is a wanted war criminal, but Dussander knows that Todd is keeping his poor performance at school a secret from his parents and has also knowingly socialized with a war criminal for several months without telling the authorities.
Since Dussander now has power over Todd, just like Todd has power over him, he sees a way to avoid having to recount old stories about the concentration camps (he has been getting his old nightmares back as well). He now forces Todd to spend time at his house studying instead of listening to stories.
Later that night, Dussander puts on the SS uniform again and admires himself in the mirror. He hears a sound outside and peers out at a homeless man who is taking liquor bottles out of his trash. Dussander stares intently at the man, who then sees Dussander in the window wearing his SS uniform. Dussander self-consciously withdraws from the window and the homeless man continues to dig through his trash cans.
With great effort, Todd is able to pick his schoolwork back up to the point where Ed French's concerns are sufficiently allayed. However, in a fit of conscience he throws all of his proof of Dussander's true identity in the trash. Later at Dussander's home, he shows his first term grade report to Dussander and so he offers some Melba toast in celebration. While preparing the celebratory snack, Dussander then begins to tell Todd a story about how he prepared a written document detailing everything Todd has done since the day he was confronted by him. Todd begins to realize that he may have to kill Dussander to keep him quiet (it appears that he resolves to kill Dussander in his home and make it look like an accident). Dussander knows what Todd is thinking and ends his story by telling him that he had put the document in a bank deposit box with a key only he can use, and that it will be found upon his death. Todd is furious, stating how Dussander seems ready to die any day. Dussander retorts that he may have a few decades left to live and makes a concession: when he feels that his secret no longer matters to him, he will take out the document and destroy it.
At this moment, Todd then declares that "we're through," and Dussander agrees. However he pours Todd some liquor and proposes an ominous toast, "To our lives together... The beginning and the end." Todd initially refuses to drink and tells Dussander, "I think you should fuck yourself." Dussander responds, "Oh, my dear boy - don't you see? We are fucking each other." Todd then drinks to the toast.
The film then goes through a montage of Todd's resurgence as a model student - excelling at sports, scholarly pursuits and even showing him enjoying a date with his girlfriend. However, he is reminded of his precarious situation during a date with his girlfriend at a movie theater when he sees Dussander enjoying the same film from a seat several rows before him.
Later that night, Dussander goes to the liquor store and makes a few purchases. On his bus ride home, he recognizes the homeless man that he spotted sorting through his trash earlier in the film. The homeless man waves to him, but he studiously ignores him. After Dussander leaves the bus, the homeless man follows him and begins to allude that he has been watching Dussander and the boy. He claims he can "help" Dussander and wishes to make an arrangement similar to the one he apparently had with Todd - at first just to get some liquor and possibly a shower. Dussander is initially caught off guard, but allows the man into his home. He gets the man drunk, tries to kill him by stabbing him in the back with a knife, and then pushes him down the stairs into the basement. He grabs a hammer at the top of the stairs, intent on continuing to beat the man, but he has a heart attack, and calls Todd for help. Todd does not know what is going on, but Dussander locks him in the basement with the homeless man, who turns out to not be so dead after all. Frightened, Todd kills the man with a shovel. Dussander then lets him out and asks him to call an ambulance for him. However, Todd notes that Dussander is dying and seemingly wishes to kill him as well for the key to the bank box. It is established shortly afterwards that Todd cleans up the mess from the struggle, hides the body and then calls his father and an ambulance for Dussander. Todd's father glances around the recently cleaned and organized kitchen (missing an ominous blood stain on the telephone handset) and then leaves with Todd to go to the hospital.
The film then shows Todd coming back to Dussander's home the very next day. Todd cleans up the very last of the incriminating bloodstains from the phone and buries the body of the homeless man in the basement. He then gathers up the bloody clothes and the SS uniform he gave Dussander as a gift and then burns them all under a viaduct. He watches the SS runes intently as they burn in the flames.
Todd visits Dussander in the hospital. Dussander tells Todd that they have operated on him and that the doctors say he will live another twenty years. Todd tells Dussander that he "took care of everything" - except for the key to the bank box. Dussander smiles faintly and tells Todd that his threat about the letter in the bank deposit box was a ruse in order to protect himself from Todd. Dussander then tells Todd, "I suspect we will not see each other again". Todd agrees, but then Dussander stops him and asks, "what it felt like?" This alludes that now both he and Todd now share the answer to the question Todd proposed to Dussander earlier in the film. Todd responds with silence and makes an excuse to leave, but Dussander has a final request: he wishes that Todd would stay by his side until he falls asleep.
Todd wakes up later that night and prepares to leave the room when he is stopped by the anonymous other occupant of the room - an elderly man. The elderly man praises Todd for his good conduct keeping his friend company. He muses about Dussander's "southern German" accent and muses about if he was, "in the war." Todd claims he's never heard his friend mention anything about it. After speaking a few moments more, Todd leaves the room and the man then glances at Dussander's profile. Shortly afterward, he begins to watch television - an episode of the Jeffersons - and slowly drifts off to sleep as it blares in the background.
A few moments later, the man suddenly wakes up with fear in his eyes. He glances at Dussander, unplugs himself from the hospital equipment around his bed and moves closer to peer at Dussander's face. He then flees the room in terror - revealing his Ka-tzetnik (concentration camp number) tattoo in the process. He struggles down the hall of the hospital ward until he collapses in the arms of a female doctor, who he clings to while crying hysterically.
The next morning, a Jewish war criminal-hunter named Weiskopf turns up at Dussander's hospital bed along with FBI special agent Dan Witchell and detective Ghetty of the LAPD telling him that he has been found out. Dussender claims ignorance, but it is shown that he has been positively identified by Benjamin Kramer (the formerly unnamed elderly man who shared the room with him earlier) and fingerprinted while unconscious. Dussander is informed that Kramer was a Jewish survivor of the (fictional) Patin Concentration Camp he was formerly commandant of and that Dussander was responsible for the death of his wife and two daughters in the gas chambers. Weiskopf then informs him that the entire ward is under guard and that once Dussander regains his strength, he will be sent to Jerusalem to face trial "by the end of the summer."
Meanwhile, Todd and his parents are attending his graduation ceremony where he is about to give his speech as valedictorian for his graduating class. Things go smoothly until the Ed French shows up to congratulate Todd and his family for his success. He asks about Todd's grandfather Victor and begins to look puzzled when Todd's father states that he lives in the distant town of Charlotte and that he has been wheelchair bound for a few years. French is interrupted from asking any questions by the school bell ringing (indicating the beginning of the ceremony) and leaves to take his place in the event.
Todd then gives his speech, which is accompanied by a montage of footage showing the law enforcement authorities searching Dussander's home while presenting different views of the graduation ceremony. His speech goes as follows:
All great achievements arose from dissatisfaction. It is the desire to do better, to dig deeper, that propels civilization to greatness. All of us have heard the story of Icarus: the young boy who took the wings his father built for him. Wings that were meant to carry him over the ocean to freedom, and used them instead, for a joyride. For a brief moment, Icarus felt what it was like to live as a god. To touch the sun. To soar above the common man. And for doing so, he paid the ultimate price. Like Icarus, we too have been given gifts. Knowledge... Education... Experience... And with these gifts comes the responsibilities of choice. We alone decide how our talents are bestowed upon the world. This is our destiny, and we hold it in the palm of our hands.
As Todd's speech ends with a standing ovation by the students and parents, the law enforcement officers finish their search in the basement of Dussander's home. Their disgusted faces allude to their discovery of the buried homeless man's corpse.
Todd wakes up the following morning in bed and stumbles downstairs to see his parents watching the morning news on TV in the kitchen. The news report states a body had been found in the basement of "Mr. Denker" believed to be a "Nazi War Criminal." Todd runs back upstairs in terror.
A chaotic scene follows, showing protesters and Nazi-Skinheads shouting at each other outside the hospital. They are kept separate by police officers who occasionally struggle to keep them from physically fighting each other. Inside the hospital, it is shown that Dussander is kept in a semi-conscious state by injections administered directly into his IV.
Meanwhile, Weiskopf (who is revealed to be a professor at the fictional "Judaic Institute in Munich") and Witchell are shown at Todd's house interviewing him about Dussander. He is almost caught lying about the circumstances of Dussander's heart attack - supposedly Todd was reading a letter in German (a language he didn't understand) to Dussander and that letter mysteriously disappeared. He defuses the tense situation by using humor and then manages to convince the both of them that he didn't know about Dussander's identity. Once Weiskopf and Witchell leave, Todd watches them drive away from his bedroom window as his father indicates that he will get him a Lawyer. Weiskopf and Witchell, on the other hand are convinced that the Todd knew nothing and muse about their childhood experiences as they drive to the hospital to take Dussander to the airport.
At the same time, Dussander is shown waking up at the hospital. He studiously removes the tube from his IV drip as Weiskopf and Witchell make their way through the protesters and hospital hallways and meet up with detective Ghetty and the hospital administrators.
The scene then transposes to Todd's home as he is about to go outside to play basketball alone. When he opens the door, French appears asking to see Todd's parents. French is reluctant to speak to Todd about the reason why he wishes to speak to his parents, but finally relents and confronts him with a copy of the local newspaper. The front page shows Dussander's photos from the hospital and in his prime as a member of the SS.
Back at the hospital, Dussander is then shown blowing air into the IV tube leading into his arm in order to cause an air embolism while a fight breaks out between police officers and skinheads outside. He lapses into a seizure and then goes into cardiac arrest just as Weiskopf, Witchell, Ghetty and the hospital administrators reach his ward.
At Todd's home, Todd then states to French that he "wouldn't know where to begin" regarding his interaction with Dussander. French pushes for an answer, and Todd suggests that it would be best if they were both to "forget about it." French states that he "can't do that," which elicits a piercing stare from Todd.
The film then transposes again to the hospital where the doctors and hospital staff attempt to revive Dussander while Weiskopf looks on their frantic activity with detached interest.
A close-up of French then shows him saying he'll come back later. Todd follows him and indignantly states that they "had a deal" and reiterates the arrangement they had regarding his future at college. French then refuses to continue the conversation with Todd and begins to leave. Todd then gets his attention by calling him by his first name, and then intimates that French's interest in him was possibly sexual - referring to the deal regarding his term grades, the secrecy of the deal, offering his phone number to Todd, and then coming to his house when he was alone. He then threatens French by stating that he would "drag him down with him," and that French's career would be ruined and his son possibly taken away - using the very same speech that Dussander gave him about the (false) papers in the bank box. As French relents to Todd, it is shown that despite the attempts to resuscitate Dussander using defibrillation, he dies.
The film ends with a short montage: French drives away from Todd's home in his Volvo, while Todd shoots a basketball into a net located on his driveway (seen from overhead) - which then fades into Dussander's dead face (centered on his vacant eyes) while a refrain from the Hildegard Knef song Das ist Berlin plays in the background.
