First Word

Beautifully filmed statement of the key events in the life of Martin Luther. It seems to include the same main facts as Roland Bainton’s great biography, with the exception of ignoring the role of the knights; but liberties are taken with the details, and an episode with a suicide is, so far as I can ascertain, completely made up (though for an acceptable thematic purpose).

The music is quite fetching when it is authentic to the period; when it resorts to movie-music filler, it can get a bit tiresome.

Those not yet familiar with the details of Luther’s life and times can use a first viewing as an introduction, but many of the vast array of supporting characters will come and go without registering, until more thorough due diligence is done. Watch for Bruno Ganz (later Hitler in Downfall) as Stapitz (the head of Luther’s Augustinian order), and Peter Ustinov as the Saxon Elector Frederick the Wise. British actor Joseph Fiennes does the title role very effectively. Maria Simon (the sister in Good Bye Lenin) has a nice minor role as the (fictional) good Saxon mother of a crippled girl. Alfred Molina does a very persuasive job as Tetzel. Torben Liebrecht portrays the young emperor Charles very well: deeply sincere at one level, but ultimately a Pilate. The scene at the second Diet of Augsburg, when the Protestant princes take a stand, is quite affecting; it shows our principle of lower magistrates resisting firmly, yet with as much respect and submission as is possible short of compromise.

Carlstadt (Jochen Horst) is shown as too much of a rabble-rouser. As a senior faculty member that promptly came over to the Reformation, he deserves more credit than he is given here or in the 1953 classic. In reality, he submitted meekly to correction, and even some of his excesses appear to have been motivated by insights that, in a few instances, may have gone deeper than Luther’s.

More serious objections concern how the gospel is portrayed. Luther’s keynote of justification by faith is not mentioned, and what we can regard as his conversion is also bypassed completely. As a result, the movie, perhaps with crafty intention, can have either Christian or humanistic meaning poured into many of the same events. In the latter interpretation, Luther represents the overcoming of the notion of divine wrath and eternal hellfire, and the triumph of freedom of religion. This can easily be the received message of the movie, especially as it is ratified by the titles at the end.

So, it might be wishful thinking for us to pour a different meaning into the depicted events, namely, the recovery of the gospel. Nevertheless, the movie can sustain such a pouring-in; and with that understanding, it satisfies very well indeed.