Most of the initial comments here have been from Germans. I just saw this movie in the Portland International Film Festival and I do feel compelled to say that it has an extra resonance for me as an American at this particular historical movement. (The film is about to be rolled out now in the US, starting with NY and LA.)
"Sophie Scholl" is about a group of university students who stand up and clearly declare that their government is killing people for nothing by continuing to fight a war that cannot be won. Julia Jentsch, who plays Sophie, does a powerful job of delivering Sophie's actual words as she asserts with total conviction that this cannot be passively accepted - that you must follow your conscience, even if that puts you on the wrong side of the law and therefore in personal peril. She objects to her government's criminalization of free speech (they charge her with treason and demoralizing the troops) and she and the rest of the White Rose insist on speaking out against the war.
Heartbreakingly, the US is also slogging through an unwinnable war of aggression right now in Iraq. Through virtually no one in Congress will stand up and say so, we do have an American "White Rose" grassroots resistance calling for the end of the war and, increasingly, the impeachment of the president. Our government responds by charging them with treason and demoralizing the troops but, luckily for Cindy Sheehan, not with guillotines. With polls indicating that half of the American electorate is recognizing the futility of this war, Sophie Scholl's example could not be more relevant as more and more Americans must decide how much to speak out.
"Sophie Scholl" is about a group of university students who stand up and clearly declare that their government is killing people for nothing by continuing to fight a war that cannot be won. Julia Jentsch, who plays Sophie, does a powerful job of delivering Sophie's actual words as she asserts with total conviction that this cannot be passively accepted - that you must follow your conscience, even if that puts you on the wrong side of the law and therefore in personal peril. She objects to her government's criminalization of free speech (they charge her with treason and demoralizing the troops) and she and the rest of the White Rose insist on speaking out against the war.
Heartbreakingly, the US is also slogging through an unwinnable war of aggression right now in Iraq. Through virtually no one in Congress will stand up and say so, we do have an American "White Rose" grassroots resistance calling for the end of the war and, increasingly, the impeachment of the president. Our government responds by charging them with treason and demoralizing the troops but, luckily for Cindy Sheehan, not with guillotines. With polls indicating that half of the American electorate is recognizing the futility of this war, Sophie Scholl's example could not be more relevant as more and more Americans must decide how much to speak out.