Sophie Scholl: The Final Days

Name: Sophie Scholl: The Final Days
Genre: Biography, Drama, History, Crime, War
Released: February 17, 2006
Duration: 120 min
Rating: 76
Cast: Fabian Hinrichs, Julia Jentsch

2006

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Generally favorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews

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Universal acclaim based on 53 Ratings

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Sophie Scholl: The Final Days

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Movie Details & Credits

Zeitgeist Films | Release Date: February 17, 2006

Starring: Fabian Hinrichs, Julia Jentsch

Summary: The true story of Germany's most famous anti-Nazi heroine is brought to thrilling life in Germany's official Foreign Language Film selection for the 2005 Academy Awards. Sophie Scholl stars Julia Jentsch in a luminous performance as the young coed-turned-fearless activist. Armed with long-buried historical records of her incarceration,The true story of Germany's most famous anti-Nazi heroine is brought to thrilling life in Germany's official Foreign Language Film selection for the 2005 Academy Awards. Sophie Scholl stars Julia Jentsch in a luminous performance as the young coed-turned-fearless activist. Armed with long-buried historical records of her incarceration, director Marc Rothemund expertly re-creates the last six days of Sophie Scholl's life: a heart-stopping journey from arrest to interrogation, trial and sentence. (Zeitgeist Films)… Expand

Director: Marc Rothemund

Genre(s): Biography, Drama, History, Crime, War

Runtime: 120 min

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Critic Reviews

Marc Mohan

Throughout, Sophie exhibits the quality common to all of history's great martyrs, a preternatural calmness that perseveres despite (or perhaps because of) the inevitability of her doom. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Ken Fox

The film is a shattering experience fueled by Jentsch's electrifying performance. Read full review

Kirk Honeycutt

Rock solid performances by up-and-coming German actress Julia Jentsch as Sophie and Alexander Held ("Downfall") as Mohr along with an excellent cast of supporting players insure that no one mistakes this for a lifeless docu-drama. Read full review

Roger Ebert

The effect of this scene is so powerful that I leaned forward like a jury member, wanting her to get away with it so I could find her innocent. Read full review

Lisa Schwarzbaum

Sophie Scholl has a certain quiet dignity that wins its audience popularity honestly. Read full review

Wesley Morris

Rothemund gives us his sophisticated filmmaking only in the finale, which is devastating in its briskness and fury. Read full review

Connie Ogle

For most U.S. audiences, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, an Academy Award nominee for best foreign language film, is going to feel more like a history lesson than a movie. Read full review

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User Reviews

PhilipP.

Jan 10, 2007

A human drama without any added film dramatizations and all the more chilling because of it. This could happen today in any country unless the people are aware.

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JoanM.

Feb 28, 2006

Julia Jentsch gives a powerful performance, authentic Oscar worthy. The films deserves the Oscar.

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LyleM.

Jun 11, 2006

Excellent movie. Wonderful "conflict" scenes. So far, my "best movie" of the year.

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ArnoldP.

Feb 24, 2006

Powerful and frightening and above all still relevant both for Americans today who must defend their freedoms and for Germans to see that good people can flourish against all odds. Amust see history lesson to all the youth. Dramatically gripping to know these were real people.

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VK.

Jun 7, 2007

This woman (only 21-22) is one of the most admired persons in Germany. The best part is when she verbally faces off against an experienced Gestapo interrogator!

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FilipeNeto

Apr 15, 2020

A remarkable film that strives for authenticity and credibility.

I saw this film recently, very much under the influence of my girlfriend, who is a distant relative of Sophie Scholl. I had heard of this historical character but I confess that I deepened my knowledge of it. It was worthA remarkable film that strives for authenticity and credibility.

I saw this film recently, very much under the influence of my girlfriend, who is a distant relative of Sophie Scholl. I had heard of this historical character but I confess that I deepened my knowledge of it. It was worth watching this film and rediscovering this figure, remarkable for the anti-Nazi resistance.

The film is heavily based on historical documents and reports from people who lived with Sophie Scholl. This is enough to give this film a credible basis for greater realism, which has been fully achieved. The film never sounded false, imaginative or invented. The whole plot is centered on the arrest of Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans, and on the process, interrogation and trial of the two, to which a third conspirator joins. The film is not brutal and they are not subjected to torture or anything ... but the interrogations are harsh and do not spare the young woman questions in which she ends up contradicting herself and confessing. A precious moment in the film happens when Sophie debates with the police officer who interrogates her. The ideological debate between the two characters shows the ambiguity and fragility of the logic of the Nazi doctrine, and attests to the firm conviction of the young prisoner. The trial scene, in turn, reveals the way in which justice was applied: no matter the truth, the sentence was decided, it is important to give a show and make the three students an example so that other young people, who want to think for themselves, know what can happen to them.

I am not a specialist in German cinema, so it is not surprising that I do not know any of the actors involved. Julia Jentsch seemed to me to be a good choice for her physical resemblance to the real Sophie Scholl and it seems to me that she did a good job overall. Alexander Held was very good in that he gave the interrogator an unexpected humanity for someone so faithful to Nazi doctrine. His character, more than once, reveals feeling compassion for the young Sophie, even though she dislikes her idais. Perhaps this is an interesting fact for us: even among the most faithful Nazis there would be, as it is likely, good-natured people who only later realized the size of their mistake. Fabian Hinrichs and Florian Stetter were competent like Hans and Probst, but both had little to do and little time on the scene. André Hennicke was truly the face of Nazi cruelty and hypocrisy. Jörg Hube and Petra Kelling were good additions.

Technically, I don't see any major flaws. I tend to be very attentive to issues of historical correctness in period films, but I didn't see much that could possibly be incorrect. Only, perhaps, the choice of American jazz to be played on the radio in the opening scenes ... I don't know if the Nazis would allow this type of music, even the most popular, to be played on the radio, with the III Reich at war with the USA. But that was just a note and does not interfere with the credibility of the film. I also observed some caution and restraint in using the word "Fuhrer" and ostensibly Nazi symbols, such as the flag, but I do not know if this is an influence of current politics in Germany, which condemns its public appearance. Other than that, the film has good sets and costumes, it is very restrained in the effects, it seems to me that it has been very well edited and edited, and it has a very interesting soundtrack, dominated by jazz.

Nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, it is undoubtedly an interesting film and to some extent even educational, as it presents a relevant historical figure, in a relatively mild film in terms of brutality. It is not a film for children but I think that teenagers and young people can see it without problems.… Expand

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MarcK.

Nov 24, 2006

Very talky, with not much else going on. I'm sure it's very faithful to what actually occurred, but I wasn't entertained.

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