An amazing movie

One of the perks of life at York is that the library has an extensive multimedia collection -- aka movies! So far I've watched Junebug, Romeo + Juliet, Capote, The Treasure of Sierra Madre, The Queen, and The Good German. Of all of these, Junebug was the best. It's a quirky independent film which portrays the South without caricature (although be warned, it earns its R rating for sexual content).

But Junebug lost its top standing this weekend when I watched Sophie Scholl: The Final Days. This German language movie follows Sophie Scholl, a leader in the WWII youth resistance movement "The White Rose," through her arrest, interrogation, trial and execution. The script was based on survivor interviews and recently recovered court transcripts, so part of the film's fascination comes from its close correspondence to reality. The intensity of Sophie Scholl, however, comes from the clash of ideas, as Sophie spars with her Nazi interrogator. Sophie's courageous stand for, as she puts it, "decency, morals and God" is a challenge to the modern viewer. For maximum contrast (although not necessarily maximum enjoyment) I recommend watching The Good German --a sort of bad Casablanca--in close proximity to Sophie Scholl.

Thanks to Andrew Coffin of World Magazine for the reviews of both Junebug and Sophie Scholl which occasioned their inclusion on my To Watch list.