Luther
review clippings
The Layman
Online
Monday,
October 6, 2003
Luther,
a motion picture about the life of Martin Luther, has been released
nationwide.
Co-produced by Minneapolis-based Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and
Neue Filmproduktion of Berlin, the two-hour film stars Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare
in Love, Enemy at the Gates), Alfred Molina (Frida, Chocolat),
and two-time Oscar winner Peter Ustinov (Spartacus, Topkapi). It
is rated PG 13.
The following are some reviews from the religious and secular media. The
full reviews are available by clicking on the names of the media.
Kenneth Turan
Associated
Press Any film that believes, as this one does, that "ideas
can set the world on fire," that is willing to illustrate, even in
a simplistic way, passionate arguments about whether "salvation can
exist outside the church but not outside of Christ," has enough
going on to hold our attention.
Chris Armstrong
Christianity
Today Writer Camille Thomasson and director Eric Till
have done well to show something of the anguish and desolation that
comes with the uprooting of old meanings and the conflicted (and always
incomplete) process toward the new. Even if we are convinced, with
Luther, that the new meanings are really the oldest ones of all –
fidelity to Scripture, salvation by grace alone, the surpassing love of
the Father – we can sympathize with the human toll of what our age
has fashionably called a "paradigm shift."
Stephen Holden
The
New York Times As the film veers uncertainly between
meticulous historical recapitulation and shameless hokiness, it brings
in enough characters to populate a mini-series. When the historical
detail becomes too confusing, the movie shamelessly overcompensates by
wallowing in cheap sentimentality. Although Joseph Fiennes's performance
captures Luther's psychic and spiritual turbulence, the character never
quite achieves a full human dimension.
David DiCerto
Catholic
News Service While many of the abuses documented are
tragically based on verifiable truth, the film presents several
arguments which contain skewed – if not outright false –
interpretations of Catholic doctrine. The manipulative narrative seems
to position the church and its hierarchy as self-indulgent vehicles of
worldliness and repression, setting them against the egalitarian
benevolence of Luther. And though it misses no opportunity to spotlight
ecclesiastical corruption and hypocrisy, Till's film conveniently shies
away from any unflattering facts that would cast Luther in an
unfavorable light, including his endorsing violence to suppress the
Peasants' Revolt. This and other unpleasantries – which the broom
of poetic license could not sweep under the narrative rug – are
simply scapegoated onto another character.
Charles Colson
Breakpoint
The result is a movie with an unmistakably Christian worldview that
avoids the poor production values and forced religiosity that often turn
off even Christian moviegoers. You don't need me to tell you how rare
this combination is. The only way we'll get more films like Luther
is if we support this one. Call us here (1-877-3-CALLBP) for more
information on Luther, including show times and locations in
your area. And take your friends. Martin Luther's life and work
profoundly shaped life here in the West. We think the way we do, in no
small measure, thanks to him. Let's hope that his influence and the
Gospel can spread as people watch a well done movie.
Steven Winn
San
Francisco Chronicle Fiennes is admirable throughout. He
captures the bone-deep conviction of Luther's beliefs, his anguish at
turning against Rome and the power of genuine humility in the face of a
duplicitous institution. His scenes with Bruno Ganz, excellent as a
sympathetic Augustinian friar, are deeply, affectionately felt. Luther's
confrontations with church and state officials have a wooden solemnity,
but even here Fiennes finds the authentic, hair-trigger humanity. His
huge eyes and broad mouth register Luther's storms of eloquent outrage
and guardedly dawning sense of hope.
Holly McClure
Crosswalk
This is an impressive production filmed with a big budget on over 100
sets and in 20 locations throughout Germany, Italy and the Czech
Republic. Fiennes does an incredible job at taking a difficult role and
making the man of history come to life in a real and deeply moving
story. His portrayal of Luther showed him to be a charismatic man as
well as a bit shy, defiant, playful and intense. And you can definitely
see where Fiennes' Shakespearean training helped him portray this
character. I always enjoy Ustinov on screen, and this time out he
provides the comic relief and a few chuckles in this otherwise very
serious movie. I liked this movie because for the first time I clearly
understand what Luther did for the Christian church and how liberating
it must have been to get out from under the tyranny of the Catholic
church of that day. Realize that I am saying "of that day"
because what the church was doing to the common people and the control
it had on society back then was much different from the Catholic church
of today.
Angela Aleiss
Religion
News Service Luther's faith has always been a popular
subject for Western filmmakers. Germany created several contemporary
television dramas on the reformer's life and even produced Luther,
a black-and-white silent movie in 1927. Another black-and-white film,
Martin Luther, was released by Hollywood in 1953 with Irish
actor Niall MacGinnis as the Protestant reformer. In 1973, Stacey Keach
played the title role in the American Film Theater's Luther. But the
most recent "Luther" might very well be the most passionate.
Robert Vaux
Flipside
Movie Emporium Credit Luther at least for
avoiding Masterpiece Theater self-importance. It makes fine use
of various European locations, and adequately evokes the realities of
Luther's world. It also uses some fascinating hooks that reel us in
without betraying basic history. Much of the credit goes to Joseph
Fiennes, who plays the title figure without bombast or pretension. His
Luther is a man of wit and intelligence, who comes by his faith
relatively late in life and constantly struggles to reconcile it with
his doubts. He pledges eternal loyalty to God during a thunderstorm –
so terrified by the lightning that he's willing to consign himself to
monasticism rather than risk electrocution.
Paul T. McCain
The
Z Review The movie is stunning, dramatic, powerful and
beautiful. For a Lutheran, the movie is intensely emotional. The movie
takes a few liberties with the sequence of certain events and even some
details, for the sake of making sense out of things for the viewer.
Where the movie does portray an actual event and relate actual details
the level of fidelity to the actual history is remarkable and powerful.
I come away in awe at the level of detail and historical accuracy, far
more than I expected or even hoped for.
Steven D. Greydanus
Decent
Films Luther is … one-sidedly positive in
its view of the Reformation [and it] distorts Catholic theology and
significant matters of historical fact, consistently skewing its
portrayal to put Luther in the best possible light while making his
opponents seem as unreasonable as possible."
Roger Moore
Orlando
Sentinel More professional and competent than inspiring,
Luther is a well-acted new examination of the life of one of history's
most important religious figures. It's a film that dashes through much
of the life and many of the works of Martin Luther without really
getting at the personal or spiritual motivations for his crusade to
reform the Catholic Church. |