Product: Luther [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Germany ]
Rating: 4.0
LUTHER
I enjoyed this film. Joseph Fiennes was fantastic in the title role, also Alfred Molina (indulgence huckster, Johann Tetzel) and of course, the late Sir Peter Ustinov (elector of Saxony and Luther's protector, Frederick the Wise) put in great performances.Critics complain this movie overlooked much of Luther's shortcomings. It did to a degree. After all the project was backed by Thrivent, a major Lutheran financial service. So you didn't get to hear of the Father of the Protestant Reformation's scatalogical fixations, or his eventual anti-semitism, or of his contempt for the peasantry (although, to be fair, he condemned those peasants who were the followers of anarchic Anabaptism). Regardless, this film was much better than any "historically based" or "period piece" flick Hollywood has put out for awhile. Unlike that garbage, this film actually attempts to inform as well as entertain the viewer. Of course, there is some toying with the historical facts: Jochen Horst portrays the theologian, Andreas Karlstadt as a rabid, levelling fanatic. In reality, Karlstadt was an advocate for nonviolence, refusing to have anything to do with the likes of militant radicals such as Thomas Muntzer (with whom the film's "Karlstadt" seems to have much more in common).As for some calling this movie anti-Catholic, this is simply not true. I found nothing deliberate or gratuitous in the way the Church is portrayed. My fellow Roman Catholics need to accept that the Church of this period was spiritually diseased and horribly corrupted. Sadly, there was good reason why so many devout people flocked to the preachings and writings of Martin Luther and the other reformers.