The movie starts in a typical high school in Germany though not all that different than any North American one, with an average high school class and their favorite teacher, familiarized as Rainer. In trying to understand why they now have a democratic government and why its better they simulate in different classes different ideas one class was and this particular class was autocracy.
Rainer asked them quite blatantly whether they thought that Germany could ever become a dictatorship or fascist again, and of course the class refused to believe that was even a possibility. By the end the class has fully transformed into a completely fascist state, with only a few select people noticing along way noticing what was really happening.
There were quite a few differences between this film and those made in North America; first the plot was very character driven by comparison with the average Hollywood production the suspense was there but the action and explosions weren't. The surroundings were very different nothing overly upscale, not even a city really much closer to a town or village by German standards. The cars were on average older, as is typical in Europe, with few of the brand names that we expect to see in a film. Sidewalks and walkways were definitely predominate over the roads, in many spots there were only walkways with no vehicle access.
The most bizarre part of this film was that is was based on a real-life occurrence, in 1967 at a Palo Alto, California high school; Cubberly High. A history teacher: Ron Jones undertook the experiment with his contemporary history class of sophomores in an effort to better understand the events leading to Nazi Germany.
If given the opportunity to see this film again, I would more than likely go to see it and I would recommend it to others as well. It's one of those movies that really forces the viewer to think and face some facts that they may have difficulty accepting.
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