Where would the movies be without World War II? That’s not a frivolous question. Every year, the two infamous decades devoted to the cruelest and most heinous conflict in world history provide fresh material for a plethora of new movies, books, plays and even Broadway musicals. The range of Holocaust classics and other war-related subjects covers everything from the bravery of Americans on the home front (who can or will ever forget David Selznick’s Since You Went Away, with Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple?) to action epics such as A Guy Named Joe and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, not to mention the endless variety of stars who fought for freedom, peace and the end of war on the screen, from Margaret O’Brien to Boris Karloff. There’s always a new one, and the latest entry in the overcrowded genre is a sobering, well-made drama that is well worth seeing, titled Truth & Treason, about the youngest person ever executed by the Third Reich for his dedication to criticizing Adolf Hitler.
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TRUTH & TREASON ★★★ (3/4 stars) |
Helmuth Hübener (played by Ewan Horrocks) was a handsome, intelligent teenager in Hamburg who was more interested in bicycles, swimming and hanging out with his buddies than polishing personal political ideas. He was a good student, the son of a liberal clergyman, whose radical new stepfather demonstrated early signs of racial intolerance and an alarming loyalty to the harrowing ideals of the Nazi party. When one of his best friends was murdered because he was Jewish, Helmuth was so traumatized that his revised opinion of the German rules of law and order that dominated his country was reflected in a change of conscience—slowly at first, typing warnings like “Down with Hitler!” and posting them throughout urban areas of Germany. The agitprop, the outraged response from the government and the press and the many careless fingerprints inadvertently left behind began to add up as the film catalogues the participation of Helmuth’s friends, enemies and even family members.
The result of so much bravery and sacrifice is eventually disastrous, and Helmuth, without once admitting he ever did anything wrong, melds determination and innocence to become one of the war’s noblest heroes at the ten. Devoted to the truth and a dangerous cause regardless of the consequences, even when condemned to death by guillotine, he stated for posterity, “The judge will be judged—and truth will prevail.” One can only salute him for being so heroic—and wish he hadn’t also been so unnervingly naïve.
Filming in Lithuania, director Matt Whitaker guides a perfect cast that includes the dynamic British actor Rupert Evans as the secret Nazi police officer Erwin Mussener, who was both bemused and fascinated by young Helmuth while he reluctantly pursued him to his doom, and the film discovers in newcomer Ewan Horrocks an extraordinarily gifted talent about whom I predict we’ll soon see and hear a great deal more.
