SOPHIE SCHOLL : THE FINAL DAYS (Sophie Scholl - Die letzten Tage)
On Sunday 03 Sept 2006, I went to see this film which has won rave reviews on IMDB 2 weeks ago. Scoring 8.1/10 on the IMDB is already a feat itself, so I grabbed my die hard war movie buddy, Jia Lun along with me.
As hardcore war movies go, being historical, it is very boring to most. In fact, despite buying tickets at 8.30pm for a 9pm show at Great World City, we still got seats 2nd row from the back. And what's more, there is only 1 show time in 1 theater on the entire island. But as history students back in AMKSS, we share great interest in WWII, so it doesn't matter to us if the whole of Singapore has forgotten about the horrors of WWII. Oh ya, there is no great scenery, beautiful sets, insane fire fights, intense marital arts, 帅哥or 美女 either.
Set in World War 2 Germany, it's not your war standard war movie with bullets flying, men shouting or directors using more gore and violence than ever seen before on the movie screen. In fact, the only weapon that actually killed anyone was a guillotine which was used to execute the 3 members (Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst) of the White Rose non-violent resistance moment of Munich University.
"Munich, 1943: Sophie and Hans Scholl are members of the "Weiße Rose" (White Rose), a resistance group against the Nazi regime. When the siblings lay out fliers at the university, they are caught by the caretaker who calls the Gestapo. After their imprisonment, they are interrogated for days. In the beginning, Sophie manages to bluff the questioning official Robert Mohr, but Hans finally confesses everything. Now Sophie vindicates her ideals, but also tries to protect the other group members. On February 22nd, the Scholls and their aide Christoph Probst are accused of high treason and sentenced to death. As the execution tooks place the same day, Sophie has to take leave of her family..."
Summary written by fippi2000 (IMDB)
What makes this film so good is that despite that the dialogs are in German, and subtitled in English, I can see the good acting really shines in the actors. The conversations between the characters is really captivating, although the atmosphere created by the conversations can be quite solemn. The audience was much amused by the trial scene, where the trio were charged in the People's Court (Volksgerichtshof). It's really more like a mockery of the justice system as the defense lawyer were practically useless.
At the end of the movie, most people stayed to watch the photos showed which seemingly were of the real life characters depicted in the movie. Nobody spoke much when leaving the theater, as the solemn mood hangs in the air.
It's a great movie. a recommended watch.
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