Another film freedom lovers ought to see

Last April I mentioned my friend John Newman had tweaked my interest in a film called Sophie Scholl: The Last Days, a German-language film that covers the last days in the life of a key member of the group known as The White Rose. Click on that link for a great essay, "The White Rose: A Lesson in Dissent," by Jacob G. Hornberger of the Future of Freedom Foundation.

I like the essay because it does one thing I wish the film - now available on DVD at last - had done better: Explain what the White Rose was and what it believed. It's a compelling film with a quietly spectacular performance by Julia Jentsch in the title role, but while it draws extensively from transcripts of the kangaroo court that condemned to death Scholl and two other members of the group, it's a little sparse about events prior to the day she and her brother, Hans, were arrested.

It's a minor flaw, if it is a flaw - my observation is reflective of how deeply the film makes us care about the Scholls and their fellow defendant, Christoph Probst. Maybe the whole idea was to get viewers to dig deeper and find out why The White Rose was and is so important.

You wouldn't think saying what you think out loud - and advocating a nonviolent solution - could get someone killed, but Sophie Scholl: The Final Days is a sobering reminder that dissent can be a dangerous thing when people willingly give their governments over to tyrants. Anyone who advocates silencing critics of government policy needs to see this film so they fully understand what they're asking for.

Friends of freedom need to get hold of this film - we found it via Netflix - to learn about some true heroes of free speech. It does not end happily, of course, but you'll find much to cheer along the way.