Apt Pupil is their capacity for evil and the will to do it. Todd Bowden, the eponymous apt pupil is one of the most unlikable characters I have ever seen in a fiction. In him we witness the evolution of psychopath. This is trigged by magazines he found about the holocaust. He will then start to stalk a Nazi war criminal in hiding, Kurt Dussander, and then one day, he shows up on his doorstep to blackmail the war criminal into telling him that nasty, that hard reality of the war that you won’t find in a book. Dussander who has suppressed his monstrous habits until Todd enters his home and infiltrates his dark memories, drawing his past self to the surface. This will be the beginning of a callous friendship between the two. Both the book and the movie are relevant in so many different aspects, I will, however focus on the complicated and hatred relationship they have.
Any piece of art, including literature or movie are done for three main purposes: entertain, inform or persuade. Personally, the apt pupil falls into the information category. Apt pupil is an examination of the progression of evil, and the presence of sleeping monsters that can be awaken within even the most accomplished and seemingly sincere people. The plot of the book and film are plenty similar until the ending. There are two differences I feel compelled to mention. The first, the timeline in the book is much longer. The single year of the film, while easier to follow I suppose and certainly compact, is comparatively anemic. Secondly, the characters, first thing one notice is the difference of age of Todd who a little younger in the book. Besides that, Todd character ends up killing in the book which not the case in the movie.
That being said, their relationship is build on mutual hatred. Todd initially appears to regard Dussander with a sick mix disgust and curiosity. Meanwhile, Dussander despises Todd for breaking into the vault of his death cam memories. Both characters feed off of the other’s misery. Taunting, threatening and torturing each other relentlessly. When one believes to have the upper hand the other gains control in twisted psychopathic game terror. Their game has no safe word and no limits. For instance, when Todd brings to Dussander the Nazi uniform and ordered him to wear it. Dussander at first resists then submits himself to the humiliation, marching in accordance with Todd’s orders. However, he soon gains control as he starts to accept his old skin, and goose-steps with deep gratification until Todd, afraid asks him to stop.
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Another aspect of their relation I found very interesting is the refusal of Dussander to call Todd by his name. he always and refers to him as “the boy.” Perhaps Dussander views Todd like one of those he imprisoned and tortured during the holocaust, just a number, just another body placed under his antagonistic radar. Perhaps he could not call Todd by name because that would grant him with an intrinsic human quality, that of being a recognizable individual. Or perhaps, Dussander refusal is due to his own self-protection, by refusing to call Todd by name, he refuses as well to feel close to him. Because at the end, if he has to choose between them, he will choose himself. Therefore, he did not want to build any tender relationship between them.
To sum up, Apt pupil, both the book and the movie are extremely absorbing. The story treats the evil as an infection and contrasts the evil of the old killer with a young psychopath. Although Dussander and Todd were both sleeping monsters and accomplished citizen within their communities, Dussander’s monstrous passed actions during the Holocaust can never be erased and Todd’s seething evil will be aroused through knowledge of this heinous history. Their mutual hatred relationship and disgust for each other will bring them to destroy each other life with no mercy. One could argue that maybe Dussander’s past would never had been revealed if Todd had not met him in the bus but I believe that even the most deeply buried pasts can easily resurface. As Malraux once said, “man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.”
