Ho hum...
I wish this film had explored the subtext (at least as it seems to me to be shown, but really when examined, the drive behind the film narrative and the action itself ) more, the 'Operation Paperclip' side, but as noted in the article below, the original name was 'Operation Overcast.' Various nastiness was cast aside for the advancement of the national goals to quickly and quietly extract those Germans of 'value'. The Cate Blanchett, while seeming to be channeling Deitrich in Touch of Evil, Lena character and that of her husband Emil Brandt, who would expose the operation make much more sense to me knowing the reasons behind their seemingly contradictory and crosspurposed motivations and actions and ultimate ends.
Quite a bit of information exists on the program that is worth a look into. Here is a link and a brief telling of the story...go to the link and others available on the net and in books if you are interested in more...
http://www.operationpaperclip.info/
...'Operation Paperclip was the codename under which the US intelligence and military services extricated scientists from Germany, during and after the final stages of World War II. The project was originally called Operation Overcast, and is sometimes also known as Project Paperclip.
Of particular interest were scientists specialising in aerodynamics and rocketry (such as those involved in the V-1 and V-2 projects), chemical weapons, chemical reaction technology and medicine. These scientists and their families were secretly brought to the United States, without State Department review and approval; their service for Hitler's Third Reich, NSDAP and SS memberships as well as the classification of many as war criminals or security threats also disqualified them from officially obtaining visas. An aim of the operation was capturing equipment before the Soviets came in. The US Army destroyed some of the German equipment to prevent it from being captured by the advancing Soviet Army'...
as to what Soderbergh was trying to do here, I just don't know. I would love to hear his commentary...but hell, the score was pretty good though and I enjoyed the melding of newsreel footage with the various portions of the film. It seems like it would be very interesting to bookend this film with Wilder and Marlene Deitrich and Tyrone Power in Witness for the Prosecution and do some speculating about the characters.