photograph by DME

Now that was fun. Sure it was dealing once again with Hollywood’s singular obsession with Adolf Hitler. This time they at least hinted at the 5.3 million “other” that also perished. That was a nice change. The title character’s mother, a communist, being “taken away”, we assume murdered.

The Book Thief is played wonderfully well by Sophie Nélisse. She, Geoffrey Rush and a young Rudy played by Nico Liersch were the saving graces of the film. The storyline and cinematography were nothing to write home about.

As it turns out, war is hell, and as evidenced by our modern world, we have  not learned that lesson since the time this story took place some 75 years ago.

Towards the end of the film, there is the “there’s got to be a morning after” shot of the German village, with a subtitle, “1945, Americans occupy Germany”; with the implied hope of a new beginning. The thought that ran through my head, was that Hitler occupied various parts of Europe, then we and the Soviets did, now Muslims do. I don’t think Europeans will be getting rid of  them. Europeans lost a war they didn’t know they were fighting.