MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Bryan Singer directed this Brandon Boyce adaptation of Stephen King's novella about teenager Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro), who discovers Nazi war criminal Kurt Dussander (Ian McKellen) living in his California hometown. Fascinated with Dussender's wartime atrocities, Bowden blackmails the former death-camp commandant by promising to keep his identity a secret in exchange for Holocaust horror tales, or, as Todd puts it, "everything they're afraid to show us in school." Dussander complies, and as the weeks pass, their tense confrontations become increasingly malevolent. This is the third film to derive from King's 1982 book of four novellas, Different Season. The others are Stand By Me (1986, from "The Body") and The Shawshank Redemption (1994, from Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, leaving only one remaining unfilmed tale in the book ("The Breathing Method"). Signet felt King's "Apt Pupil" to be so intense and horrifying that editors asked him to leave it out of the 1983 paperback. A 1987 attempt to film "Apt Pupil" (with Rick Schroder and Nicol Williamson) ended when funding ran out. Shown at numerous 1998 film festivals (Venice, Toronto, Chicago, Sitges, Tokyo). ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Cinemascope), 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Surround
• Screen: Pan and Scan, Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Subtitle: English
• Features:
  • Languages: English
  • Subtitles: English
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Scene selections
  • Making-of featurette
  • Full screen and widescreen formats

AWARDS

• Broadcast Film Critics Association

•     Won Best Actor - 1998 (Ian McKellen)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  Bryan Singer

• Producer:

  Jane Hamsher, Don Murphy, Bryan Singer

• Screenwriter:

  Brandon Boyce

• Cinematographer:

  Newton Thomas Sigel

• Composer (Music Score):

  John Ottman

• Editor:

  John Ottman

• Production Designer:

  Richard Hoover

• Art Director:

  Kathleen M. McKernin

• Co-producer:

  Tom Desanto

• Associate Producer:

  John Ottman, Jay Shapiro

• Executive Producer:

  Tim Harbert

• Set Designer:

  David Eckert, Jennifer Herwitt, Amy Shock

• Costume Designer:

  Louise Mingenbach

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Geoffrey Lucius Patterson

• First Assistant Director:

  Fernando Altschul

• Casting:

  Francine Maisler, Kathryn Eisenstein

• Short Story Author:

  Stephen King

REVIEW:

• The attempt to turn one of novelist Stephen King's most disturbing stories into a feature film is a chilling character study from director Bryan Singer. While it's an oft-quoted maxim that "the book is always better than the movie," this isn't always true (Jaws (1976) and The Godfather (1972) are superb exceptions). However, Apt Pupil reinforces that stereotype by dropping much of the printed page's development of lead character Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro) as a big man on campus. Singer's film positions Bowden as more of an all-American, average kid, which robs the tale of some of its narrative power, as the symbolism of Bowden's teen success and good looks was paralleled by delusions of superiority entertained by former Nazi and decrepit recluse Kurt Dussander (Ian McKellen. Without this unspoken connection, the relationship that develops between fugitive and teen neighbor, and Dussander's emergence from his protective shell to full-blown monstrosity, is never as uncomfortably compelling as it is in King's tale. The film simply becomes a portrait of two mentally disturbed, homicidal sociopaths, a Thelma and Louise of fascist evil. A nonetheless interesting and provocative film, Apt Pupil is ultimately less so than it should be. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi