brad renfro sexually abused in apt pupil

#Brad renfro sexually abused in apt pupil movie#

The movie means to argue the opposite of Hannah Arendt's point about the banality of evil it's really about the charisma of evil. Mesmerized, he essentially blackmails Dussander into an education in the theory and practice of Hell. That old black magic of genocide that they weave so well ensnares the boy, too. Rather, his response to the figure that represents the planet's most notorious instance of institutionalized slaughter is pure fascination. But the boy isn't a vigilante or even a run-of-the-mill moral human being who might have a bias against mass murder. And who should happen to notice him but a bright all-American kid named Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro), who is studying the Holocaust in high school. Orson Welles's 'The Stranger' told the story of the War Criminal Next Door much better in 1946 this venture into the same neighborhood is quite disappointing.ĭown the street in Santa Donato, Calif., in that nice little Arts and Crafts bungalow, who should be living but Kurt Dussander (Ian McKellen), formerly of the Waffen SS, and ex-Kommandant of a concentration camp. It's Stephen King as if he writes for the New Yorker. Ian McKellen and Brad Renfro star in 'Apt Pupil.'īack when he was funny, Mel Brooks once came up with a nasty bit of doggerel: 'Hotsy Totsy, Another Nazi!' That's about it for 'Apt Pupil,' the new film from Bryan Singer, who made such an impact with 'The Usual Suspects' it's just another hotsy-totsy nasty Nazi movie.ĭerived from a novella by Stephen King, it has been carefully milled to remove all of King's vulgarism and crudity.

Brad renfro sexually abused in apt pupil