His Dussander first comes off as a pathetic, geriatric antique of the Third Reich. But his performance here might be the most transformative work of his career. McKellan broke through to American audiences and became a household name with the aforementioned X-Men films, and especially his Oscar-nominated performance as Gandalf in Lord of the Rings. It’s ironic that he would play a Nazi here since his next collaboration with Singer would see McKellan playing a Holocaust survivor in Magneto. But there are images, dialogue, and moments that I’ve never been able to forget, even after just one initial viewing.įor one, Ian McKellan delivers one of his most underrated performances as Dussander. It’s the 25th anniversary of the film’s release, and for reasons I’ll get into, the film’s themes have become rather depressingly relevant.

And for anyone who’s still curious to watch the film version, I hope this analysis might be a sufficient alternative to watching it.īut if you’re like me and saw it before Singer’s abuses became known to the public, it’s impossible to get this film out of my mind. It’s actually quite difficult to find these days, so anybody interested in experiencing this tale should go straight to the source and read the original novella. No matter what I say about Apt Pupil and how compelling of a viewing experience I had with it (I saw it years before the Singer allegations came to light), I can’t recommend it for obvious reasons.

Apt pupil book