Apt Pupil (film)
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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.
The story
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 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, however, he finally admits to being Kurt Dussander.
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 pretty well-off and he has an allowance and a paper route). What he wants is to hear "all the gooshy stuff" about the camps. Dussander is reluctant, but finally caves in to Todd's threats of exposure.
In the first escalation of the story, Todd brings Dussander a present. It turns out to be an Allgemeine SS Obersturmführer's uniform. Todd forces Dussander to put it on and then begin to march around on command.
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 also begins to have nightmares about the camps and his grades slip further.
Finally, it goes so far that he's in danger of flunking several courses. Since he has changed previous cards, his parents have no idea of what's happening (although they are getting a little bit concerned about the amount of time he spends with Mr. Denker, and also that he's becoming thin and having dreams). Todd once again changes his report card. He then brings in Dussander to speak to his guidance counselor, Ed French. He goes there pretending to be Todd's grandfather, Victor, and presents a story about Todd being upset about his parents' impending divorce. This is a total lie, but French agrees to let Todd get one more chance before contacting his parents.
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 has altering his report cards and knowingly socialized with a war criminal for several months without telling anybody.
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. With great effort, Todd is able to pick his schoolwork back up to the point where Ed French's concerns are sufficiently allayed. Since he no longer has any use for Dussander, Todd resolves to kill him in his home and make it look like an accident.
Todd has earlier claimed to have given a letter exposing Dussander to a friend if anything should happen to him. Before Todd can carry out his murderous intent, Dussander now claims that he has written down what has happened and put in a bank deposit box, so that it will be found upon his death.
Todd's visits to Dussander become much less frequent, and as he progresses through high school, his performance is good enough to win him both prizes and a college scholarship.
One night, Dussander lures a homeless man into his home. He gets the man drunk, and then tries to kill him, and pushes him into the basement. While beating the man, 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 Todd cleans up the body before calling the ambulance for Dussander. At the hospital, Dussander shares a room with Morris Heisel, an elderly Jewish man recovering from a broken back. Heisel thinks that he recognizes "Mr. Denker", but he cannot remember from where.
Todd visits Dussander in the hospital. Dussander tells Todd that his threat about the letter in the bank deposit box was a ruse, just as Todd's threat of a letter with a friend was. Dussander has read about the man whose murdered body has been found by the police, and tells Todd not to get careless. Todd tries to act like he does not know what Dussander is talking about, but Dussander is not fooled. He tells Todd, however, that "we are quits." Todd leaves, somewhat uneasy about the implications of what Dussander has told him.
A few days later, Heisel realizes with horror Denker is Dussander, the commandant of the Patin camp which he survived, but where his wife and daughters died in the gas chambers.
Soon after Heisel has left the hospital, a Jewish war criminal-hunter named Weiskopf turns up at Dussander's hospital bed telling him that he has been found out. After he has left, Dussander steals some drugs from the hospital dispensary and commits suicide.
In the morning, Todd's parents find pictures of "Mr. Denker" along with a picture of Dussander as commander of Patin in their morning paper with a large heading screaming "War Criminal." Todd convinces them that he didn't know about Dussander's identity or the corpses buried in his basement. A few days later, Weiskopf, accompanied by a police detective named Richler, comes and talks to Todd, and he isn't as convinced of the story.
Meanwhile, French meets Todd's parents at graduation, where Todd is the valedictorian. He talks to them about Todd's grandfather and asks why he is not there. It turns out that Todd's grandfather has been in a wheelchair for years. Later, he sees a newspaper article concerning Dussander's death and identifies the photograph as being the man who had met with him concerning Todd's grades. Now convinced that something is wrong, he goes to visit Todd, who is alone. French asks Todd for an explanation. Todd replies “Oh, one thing just followed another...As stupid as it sounds, that’s just what happened. That’s all there was to it." French then tells Todd that he is going to have to tell his parents, and the school about the entire thing. Todd first pleads, then blackmails French into not doing anything. The movie ends with Todd warning him off, using the same speech that Dussander gave him.
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