I’ve seen a lot of World War II films. Some good. Some Bad. “The Book Thief” comes on the good side of my WWII radar. It stars Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson (Not Emma Watson!), and introduces Sophie Nelisse as Liesel. This film covers the beginning and end of Germany’s home-front during WWII, which is a seven-year time span. Quite a bit of an eleven year old girl who witnesses the persecution and injustice to the Jews. We don’t see many German home-front films, and this one definitely does the genre justice. It’s a light, warm-hearted, and touching film that does everything right, almost.
I say almost with this film because it seemed that the persecution and violence with the Jews was done a little forcefully trying to get the audience have a reaction too quickly. It barely scratches the surface of the Holocaust. A good Holocaust film to watch that does everything naturally and still gets gut-wrenching reactions from its audience is Roman Polanski’s “The Pianist” (2002). I saw a little bit of the “Pianist” in “The Book Thief” when the Jew, Max (Ben Schnetzer), comes into the picture and hides in basements. It’s very dangerous to make a movie about the Holocaust that doesn’t show a concentration camp. Only “The Pianist” can pull that off. Maybe “The Diary of Anne Frank” (1959). But “The Pianist” does it the best.
I want to end on a positive by saying that this film did a very good job at showing the perspective from a child about 1940s Germany. Usually we only see the side of the Allies fighting the Germans in most war films, but seeing the city of Munich in ruins and the lives shattered in a simple German home makes the film have weight. Not as much as I wanted, but enough to help me feel a little sympathy. Enjoyable? Yes. But don’t watch “The Pianist” before this film.
Sophie Nelisse (L) and Geoffery Rush (R) in “The Book Thief”
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