Sophie Scholl was a student protestor in Germany during the height of World War II. Sophie was arrested for distributing anti-Nazi pamphlets and was subsequently interrogated then executed in early 1943. Though her life was extinguished some 60 years ago, it has since been immortalized in German cinema so that the memory of Sophie Scholl serves as a reminder that heroes exist even in the bleakest hours of human despair.
The previous films that recount her tragic story are The White Rose and Last Five Days, both from the early 80s. They are effective, well-made films and stand proudly on the laurels they have received. This of course begs the question: Why a new film about Sophie Scholl?
What distinguishes Sophie Scholl: The Final Days from the other films is the manner of its production. The Final Days uses the official transcripts taken from the interrogation of Sophie conducted by Berlin's then-police commissioner, Robert Mohr, as the script for this film. According to Boyd van Hoeij in a March, 2005 review for Europeanfilms.net, the work wholly concerns itself with the dialogue between these two ideological antipodes. Through it, the resilience and purity of Sophie's character is revealed not so much by the imagination and embellishment of a screenwriter but simply the archived and impassive narration of a primary historical source, Hoeij observes. So, it is tempting to consider the film as a simultaneously literal and figurative rereading of this history.
This gives the film a special sort of urgency and gravity that most films aspire toward but unfortunately do not acquire, observes David Parkinson in an October, 2005 review for Empire Online. Since, Parkinson notes, the movie relies so heavily on the discussion or argument between its two principal characters, one can see how the burden of its success rests on the shoulders of its leads.
The actress who plays Sophie, Julia Jentsch, won the Silver Bear at the Berlin film festival for her powerful and compelling performance. Some have placed her acting among the small and privileged group of performances that personally elevate a film from mere excellence to greatness. Regrettably, imdb.com's user reviews point out that her performance overshadows Fabian Hinrich's, who plays the interrogator Mohr, and tilts the theatrical dynamic in Sophie's direction.
One is inclined to compare this story with another landmark in cinema, Le Passion de Jean D'arc, in which Joan of Arc heroically faces the inquisition and the priests who ultimately sentenced her to death by immolation. The dialogue for that Passion was also taken from firsthand official transcripts of the titular heroine's interrogation.
In light of the 60th anniversary of the end of the World War II, German filmmakers have found extraordinary material from that era to reexamine.
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