Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10352 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-02-05
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 119 minutes

Synopsis
Spiritual conviction and radical politics define LUTHER, an historical biography which traces the life and career of Martin Luther, an inspired monk whose writings initiated the Protestant movement in 16th-century Germany. The film follows Luther's induction as a monk to his professorship in Wittenberg, where he eventually authors the 95 Theses. Reacting against Roman-Catholic strategies of bartering salvation for coinage, as well as the institution's hierarchies of religious knowledge and power, Luther throws the proverbial wrench in the system with his seditious writings. His disgust with the Church is only balanced by his love of the scriptures, and he calls on both to defend himself in numerous battles with the Church, recreated with modern-day courtroom drama. The film employs tropes of the father and son, including Luther's relationships with his biological father, his spiritual mentor at the monastery, and God, all of which provide richer textures to the narrative. Populated with dusty, energetic peasants desperate for God and the statesmen who rule them--incidentally decked out in rich red robes or purple gowns--LUTHER rewards the aesthetic impulse with panoramic landscapes, vastly structured church interiors, myriad medieval paintings, and again, the costumes. Spirited in more ways than one, LUTHER provides a dramatic overview to the ultimate Protestant hero, whose radical politics and religious beliefs ushered in an entirely new era of faith and practice.

Customer Reviews

Uninspiring but ultimately rewarding
Eric Till's Luther starts badly - very badly - with a rushed prologue that felt like a bad TV miniseries (I was waiting for the voice-over: "Previously on Luther") and requires the audience's patience for the first 20 minutes or so. Till is a supremely visually unimaginative director - were it not for captions and corruption, you wouldn't know when you were in Rome or Wurtenburg and he unforgiveably makes Luther nailing his declaration on the door look like someone hurriedly putting up a shelf before making a run for the post office - and he isn't exactly helped by a script that can't be said to give John Osborne a run for his money, but ultimately it's such a good yarn that it defies the telling and picks up its own momentum. Of course, that's sometimes at the expense of some of Luther's less P.C. views - at times you definitely get the feeling that this is made by Lutherans, for Lutherans.

Joseph Fiennes' performance as the turbulent priest similarly improves with the dialogue and the drama (it's hard to muck up "Here I stand: I can do no other," and thankfully he doesn't) but the international cast is variable at best, although Peter Ustinov has fun as Frederick the Wise and Alfred Molina offers a nice line in selling Papal indulgences as the infamous Johann Tetsel. It is strange, though, that the more English-language films he makes, the worse Bruno Ganz's English seems to become. There's no shortage of cliches (crippled child ahoy!) and the ending feels as rushed as the beginning, but it's ultimately a surprisingly watchable slice of history.

Interesting insight
There are some aspects of the negative reviews that I do agree with. The biopic does start quite slowly.

However, to suggest that it is redundant in every aspect is unfair.

The film touches on many aspects of the difficulties in Luthers life. We have to understand that he was fighting against centuries of bondage that the Catholic church had imposed on people. He was also fighting against his own personal demons and struggles in his relationship with God and purity. And the film brings these struggles out clearly and very well.

It also shows that in standing up for what he believed he had to also face the consequences, which were many thousands killed.

It is definitely a film worth watching if you have an interest in church history or you have an interest in the lives of people who have created a change in world history that will have an impact on the world until Kingdom come!

Ill conceived
There is nothing to justify this film's appalling acting, writing or purpose. The sections concerning the Catholic Church pre the Reformation had all the subtlety of cactus. It came as no surprise to know this film was part funded by Lutherans, given its total lack of objectivity. However, somehow Joseph Fiennes feeble performance only made me want to support the debauched and I'm a Protestant. There is nothing to recommend this film, but as a fellow said to me it seemed quite accurate, but as this is about a theologian, accuracy is no guarantee of entertainment... actually quite the opposite.