Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7384 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-04-24
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: German
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 115 minutes

Synopsis
Set in Munich in 1943. Brother and sister, Sophie and Hans Scholl are members of student resistance group 'White Rose' against the Nazi regime and are arrested for distributing fliers around the University. The two students are interrogated and Hans finally breaks down and confesses. Sophie has no choice but to defend her beliefs and protect her brother and her friends. Based on the real activities of the 'White Rose' resistance group, recovered interrogation papers and witness interviews.

Customer Reviews

A stunning film
Stars Julia Jensch ["The Edukators"/"Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei"]. This was the Oscar nomination for Germany for 2006. A marvellously filmed and acted portrayal of Sophie Scholl and her involvement in "Die weiße Rose" -the movement that tried to incite the German people against Nazi atrocities by distributing leaflets. Sophie, then 21 years old, is captured [after so nearly getting away with her actions] by the Nazis and interrogated.

Julia Jentsch excels in the role of the only female member of the group, passionately fighting against horrific injustice. The second stage of the film involves gripping, interrogation and defence argument with marvellous, believable performances. Contrary to a couple of other reviewers here, I found the film evoked a great deal of tension. It led the viewer one way, then another; then there is the dramatic and powerful trial scene and the moving and shocking build up to the end.

This is the action of debate [the scenes in the film were also shot chronologically]and the whole is now movingly, now unnervingly underscored by the specially composed music of Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek.

The German film industry is in a "Blütezeit" - a blossoming time - with lots of very good, unusual work being produced. Perhaps this film was a little ponderous for Hollywood tastes, as it did not win [though I read that a Hollywood version is going to be made with Christina Ricci in the role of Sophie]. We shall see how Germany fares this coming February with the excellent "Das Leben der Anderen" [out on German DVD, not yet in this country -"The Life of the Others" - a love story/political thriller set in the former GDR].

PS - For the reviewer that wanted the film without English subtitles: remember you can get the German DVD from amazon.de

Compelling and harrowing
Sophie Scholl the last days is an excellent film that tells a story little known outside Germany. Sophie and her brother are brilliantly portrayed. What is striking is how they both deal with arrest, interogation and the prospect of execution with such admirable bravery.The courtroom scene brings home the harsh and detached views the Nazis had. The total lack of compassion and human emotion is very evident as Fiesler spouts his Nazi rhetoric. The film is another brilliant example of German directors coming to terms with thier country's past.
Whilst slightly harrowing and very emotional, this film leaves a definate imprint in your mind, reminding you how even in darkness, some had the will to shine out for others.

"You will all be soon standing where I'm standing"
Devastating and heart-breaking this film of the true story of Sophie Scholl is indeed a testament to the power of free speech and fearless dedication to a cause and the bravery of one girl and her brother. This film is so simple yet so affecting and features an overwhelming understated performance by young German actress Julia Jentsch as the doomed Sophie.

Director Marc Rothemund and screenwriter Fred Breinersdorfer based this film on new interviews with friends and relatives and the never-before-released records of Scholl's Gestapo interrogation. But it is Jentsch's powerful portrayal of the willful Sophie that effectively anchors this film and in turn gives it so much power.

Certainly student dissent is not something that we think of in Nazi Germany, but dissent they did. Set in 1943 Munich Sophie Scholl is about a group of single-minded university students and some other members of what was called the White Rose, who secretly write, print and distribute leaflets condemning the war, which they rightly predict will bring their nation to its knees Of course, these kids are taking a big risk, and they do so at a horrible price.

While furtively placing leaflets outside classrooms at the University of Munich, the activists are spotted by a janitor who turns them in. Soon Sophie (Julia Jentsch), brother Hans (Fabian Hinrichs) and friend Christoph (Florian Stetter) face the Gestapo, a harsh judge, a trial that is so biased its a joke and finally, the threat of quick execution.

Whilst obviously their fate is no secret, the impact of the film comes from the steady interrogation that takes place between Sophie and her inquisitor - criminologist Robert Mohr (Alexander Held) who, while loyal to Nazism, understands and even respects its refutation by a young woman he considers a misguided idealist.

Instead of torturing her, he argues with her, offering a way out during powerful, sustained scenes of bitterly divided discourse. Through it all, Jentsch is a beacon of bravery and resolve in the darkness of a totalitarian machine and we certainly get glimpses of what makes Jentsch's performance so strong. Both fear and defiant bravery live simultaneously on Scholl's face; we can see her strength as well as her terror, her resolve as well as her qualms.

At first, Sophie thinks she's got away with it and then she hasn't, then she shares a cell with a fellow inmate who works for the Nazis. But as the fascist machine beats her into a corner, we see a girl who will not sell her convictions out, and will go to her death believing that what she feels - and even predicts - is right.

The incredible power of this film actually come ion the quieter moments as when Sophie shares a quick cigarette with her colleagues, when she prays to a higher power, spends tender moments with her devastated parents or stares longingly at sun-kissed clouds through the bars of her cell.

There's nothing gimmicky or melodramatic or over-blown about this movie, everything is just so beautifully layered and with Rothemund's deft camerawork never straying far from Sophie's expressive face, especially in the second half of the movie. Somehow, her very ordinariness lends the film an honesty that renders her fate all the more devastating.

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days is a noble effort to tell of one of the bleakest periods in human history, where this regime slaughtered millions of innocent and talented people. For those of us with a social conscience and who are interested in viewing one of the great moments of history, this film of this brave and resolute tragic girl is compulsory viewing. Mike Leonard November 06.