On January 19, The Washington Post published an article by Tyler Huckabee called “Christians say Hollywood ignores them. But they ignore great films about faith.”
This was no surprise to me. I’ve been writing about films that fit this description for decades now. And one of those films — a movie that earned critical acclaim and left audiences breathless — is worth mentioning today for a variety of reasons.
1.
Today, film critic Steven D. Greydanus noted on Facebook and Twitter that in 1943, on this very date — February 22 — the extraordinary story of Sophie Scholl, who dared to resist Hitler’s rise, came to its unforgettable conclusion.
Then he said, “If you haven’t seen Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, let me try to convince you why you should.”
You can read his review here, in which he describes the film as “a riveting portrait of a young woman of formidable intellect, dogged self-possession, and excruciatingly steady nerves.”
But I’d actually recommend that you watch the movie first.
Just… trust Greydanus.
And trust me, too. This movie will make a stronger impression on you if you don’t know the story ahead of time.
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days is edge-of-your-seat filmmaking, with an remarkable lead performance by a young actress named Julia Jentsch. I was so impressed with Jentsch, I argued in my own review (which, to my surprise and delight, won an Evangelical Press Award) that she should have been a front-runner for Best Actress at the Oscars that year. You can read my original review here.
But again, don’t read my review until you’ve seen the movie for yourself.
And this brings me to the second reason that you should see Sophie Scholl: The Final Days today…
2.
If you’re a subscriber to Amazon Prime, you can watch it for free. You can also rent it on several streaming platforms. But why bother?
It’s streaming, free of charge, in its entirety, on YouTube!
So… here you go. Brace yourselves. This is a true story.
And perhaps it’s the scary truth of it that prevents it from being named among the most important films yet made about courageous Christian faith.
(Thanks to Susan Reindl Schickel for bringing this to my attention.)