Apt Pupil (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Apt Pupil | |
|---|---|
.jpg/200px-Apt_Pupil_(poster).jpg) |
|
| 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 |
| Release date(s) | October 8, 1998 |
| Running time | 111 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie 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.
Contents |
[edit] Filming
Shortly after the appearance of Stephen King's Different Seasons collection, which has also spawned the Oscar-nominated The Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me, Richard Kobritz acquired the production rights. However his attempt to have the story filmed was delayed when his first choice to play Kurt Dussander, the nazi war criminal, James Mason, died in 1984 and his second candidate, Richard Burton, died after being approached for the role. Nicol Williamson finally took the part and, in 1987, with director Alan Bridges and a teenaged Ricky Schroder as Todd, filming began. That production foundered for financial reasons, and when Kobritz secured more finance the forty minutes of usable footage shot in 1987 had to be abandoned because Schroder had aged.
The rights reverted to King in 1995, as Bryan Singer and producer Don Murphy were aware. Singer, who had read the story at the age of 19, asked a boyhood friend, aspiring screenwriter Brandon Boyce, to come up with a script, which was sent to King along with a copy of The Usual Suspects, before the movie had been released. King then gave the go-ahead to the new team, which obtained $15 million in financing from Phoenix Pictures.[1][2]
[edit] Awards
Although not an Oscar- or BAFTA-nominated film, Apt Pupil picked up a sprinkling of smaller awards. Brad Renfro won the Best Actor award at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 1998, and in 1999 Ian McKellen won three awards for his supporting performance: a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor (film) from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, a Critics' Choice Award for Best Actor from the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards , and a Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor (the latter two awards were also for his role in Gods and Monsters).
The film itself received a Saturn Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films for Best Horror Film in 1998.
[edit] Plot
A young Nazi-obsessed American high school student, Todd Bowden (Renfro), blackmails a war criminal, Kurt Dussander/Arthur Denker(McKellen), to entertain him with gory tales of the death camps. As he spends more time with the old man, the boy's grades suffer, he loses interest in his girlfriend, and he conceals his bad grades from his parents. In turn, the Nazi blackmails the young boy into studying to restore his grades, with threats to expose the boy's subterfuge and his dalliance with Nazism to his parents. Talking about the war crimes affects both the old man and the young man, and both seem to gain satisfaction from killing, or attempts to kill, animals.
One night, Dussander tries to kill a hobo who has seen him in a Nazi uniform and tried to blackmail him, but he has a heart attack and calls Todd, who finishes the job, cleans up, and calls an ambulance for Dussander. At the hospital, Dussander is recognized by a death camp survivor, and is arrested. Todd graduates as a valedictorian and gives a speech on the theme of Icarus, with the thesis that "All great achievements arose from dissatisfaction. It is the desire to do better, to dig deeper, that propels civilization to greatness." In a montage, this is juxtaposed with Dussander's home being searched and the hobo's corpse being found in the basement.
Todd is briefly questioned about his relationship with Dussander, but manages to convince the police that he knew nothing of the old man's true identity. At the hospital, Dussander commits suicide by giving himself an air embolism.
Todd then proceeds to blackmail his school counselor, French (David Schwimmer), threatening to accuse him of making inappropriate sexual advances towards him.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ King's Cursed Movie, by Dave KargerEntertainment Weekly, issue #357, December 13, 1996, accessed 4 February, 2008
- ^ Dretzka, Gary, "Usual Suspects - Filmmaker Bryan Singer's decision to interpret Staphen King isn't the most likely pairing", The Chicago Tribune, October 11, 1998. Retrieved from newsbank.com subscription archive, March 24, 2008
[edit] External links
- Apt Pupil at the Internet Movie Database
- Apt Pupil at Rotten Tomatoes
- Apt Pupil at Metacritic
- Apt Pupil at Box Office Mojo
|
|||||
|
||||||||
