Movie Review - Sophie Scholl

What does it say about a society when one of the few people who are willing to stand up against injustice is a 21-year old university student whose resistance movement fights with mimeographed leaflets and slogans written on city walls at night? I am not sure, but I am certain that everyone should go see Sophie Scholl - The Final Days.

Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans were leaders of the Munich-based White Rose resistance movement that was centred around the university. While the group was opposed to the war and Adolph Hitler's regime of thugs, they chose to resist through a campaign of leaflets advocating peaceful resistance. Sophie and Hans were captured in February of 1943, after distributing the sixth and final leaflet in the main university building.

This critically acclaimed movie examines the last week of Sophie's life, from the moment the leaflets were printed to her execution. Based on official transcripts and interviews with survivors, the movie paints a picture of a strong-willed young woman who has seen the face of evil and who is not willing to let it go unchallenged.

Julia Jentsch is magnificent as Sophie Scholl. While it would have been easy to paint a picture of Sophie as a martyr in the making, Jentsch portrays a young woman who takes delight in the simple pleasures of life, such as buttered bread and sunshine on a February day. Jentsch's Sophie is both firm enough in her convictions to attempt to convince the interrogator that his world view is wrong and yet human enough to pray for God to give her the strength to face her trials. Some reviewers have commented unfavourably on the shots of Sophie looking at the heavens as being "too much like Joan of Arc", but for me these shots were just another way of showing a sensitive person enjoying beauty where she could find it.

Although the film is primarily about Sophie Scholl, one of the film's other little gems is the loving relationship between her and her brother. Unlike the Nazis, who were notoriously chauvanistic, Hans Scholl treats his sister as an equal. Where other members of the White Rose try to convince Sophie not to distribute the leaflets due to the danger, Hans respects her enough to allow her to make her own choice. While her decision to accompany him ultimately cost Sophie her life, one gets the feeling that neither of the Scholls would have had it any other way.

Sophie Scholl - The Final Days is not a pleasant film to watch. In fact, the execution scene can only be described as horrifying. Nevertheless, this is a not movie to be missed. In times like these, when countries are at war, diseases are ravaging continents, and aboriginal land claims remain unresolved, we could all use a bit of Sophie Scholl's courage and humanity.