Sophie Scholl

Ok, it's movie recommendation time. I've watched a couple worth noting while on "break" this week. ("Break" because I have fifty 10-15 page papers to correct if I so choose. Because I'm a slacker and choose to spend some of my time doing things other than work, I'll be doing well to get forty of them done. The others will just have to wait!) Flags of Our Fathers is not worth seeing, in my estimation. It's just too gross and horrific in its violence. One reviewer was right in saying that Saving Private Ryan has nothing on this film. You might gain more appreciation for the sacrifices our men in uniform made while in the Pacific fighting the Japanese. But you don't need to see bodies scarred by unspeakable injuries to appreciate sacrifice. And you might be scarred for life if you look too closely at some of the footage (I was even careful not to look at it all, and I was still very disturbed by what I did see).

But a film I do recommend, one that's probably far off the beaten path for most of you and thus should be noted, is Sophie Scholl. It's a foreign film, in German. It's based on the true story of Sophie Scholl, a German student and anti-Nazi during World War II involved in distributing anti-Hitler literature on a university campus. While definitely the opposite of action packed (most of the story is driven by dialogue, so you really have to read the subtitles closely), it is really quite moving. The young woman, along with her brother, were both very courageous. What's also interesting is that despite this being a recent film and being nominated for an academy award, there is also a Christian flavor that comes through rather strongly. Maybe that's why it didn't win the award, because the religiosity in it is not avant garde enough. But I was impressed by the girl's faith as well as her example of one whose conscience and conviction did not cave in the face of hard circumstances. I won't say anything else so as not to spoil it. If you want a slow paced, bloodless and inspiring story from history, check it out sometime. Its unrated, but I think it would be PG if it was. So even parents might feel safe in allowing some of their children to see it.