capsule : this is a film that avoids easy answers . wilhelm furtwangler , then the world's greatest orchestra conductor stayed in germany and cooperated with the nazis . what were his views , was he a war criminal or a secret resistance fighter ? how much did he know about crimes against humanity ? the us government investigated him after the war and this film is a dramatization of that investigation . rating : 8 ( 0 to 10 ) , high + 2 ( -4 to + 4 ) in my opinion one of the best films of the last few years is istvan szabo's sunshine , a film that covers the fortunes of a jewish hungarian family under the reigns of three different regimes , hungarian aristocrats , nazis , and communists . szabo's follow-up film , a german production , is much more limited in scope . it is about the post-war investigation of who criminally supported the nazis and who opposed them . ronald harwood's screenplay ambiguously looks at the investigation of a great classical music conductor who stayed on in germany when the nazis took power and became the most popular conductor of the third reich . maj . steve arnold ( played by harvey keitel ) has been assigned by his superiors to investigate wilhelm furtwangler ( stellan skarsgard ) , perhaps europe's greatest classical music conductor . when other artists fled germany , furtwangler remained behind and conducted for the hitler and his henchmen . after the war is over arnold assigned to interview furtwangler and members of his orchestra and if appropriate to prosecute him for war crimes . he secretly is told by his commanding officer to find furtwangler guilty . from there we follow him and learn a little about arnold and something about furtwangler and his orchestra . as he interviews members of the wartime orchestra arnold starts noticing odd peculiarities that may or may not point to a conspiracy against his investigation . there is a certain sameness to the responses that he is getting . perhaps any cooperation he is getting has been in some ways managed . if so , perhaps he can never come to the truth . in large part the film is about mind games that arnold uses to manipulate his interviewees and especially furtwangler . where the script has problems is that in the end it is so ambiguous . it has no obvious resolution and not much of a final act . when it is over whether anything has been established is open to interpretation . perhaps that is better than so many films that make it all to obvious what the audience should believe , but it is like watching a murder mystery and never finding out who the killer is . we are given clues to something but they are never tied up . in the end we just know more about both arnold and furtwangler . the film is basically a stage play . the visual is not very important . corners are cut visually including touches like filling windows with photographs to avoid having to shoot on location . as with a stage play , what this film centers on the dialog , and that is intriguing . i rate the film an 8 on the 0 to 10 scale and a high + 2 on the -4 to + 4 scale . [there is one piece of sloppiness few people but me would notice . at one point we clearly see arnold's desk calendar say " jan 16 tues . " a quick mental calculation told me that combination could occur in 1945 and then not again until 1951 . the events had to take place in 1946 or 1947 . a possible date could be obtained from any world almanac . ] 
