Product: Luther [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Germany ]
Rating: 2.0
Not accurate; read the Richard Marius biography
Despite its production by a branch of the Lutheran church, "Luther" the movie has only passing basis in Luther the man. We see the scandal of selling indulgences, which Luther rightly opposed. And we're told that many in the Church hierarchy agreed with Luther that the sales must be ended.The movie shows one of the first big results of Luther's new doctrines: the deaths of from 50,000 to 100,000 peasants (the numbers used in the film) who took Luther literally, read their Bibles as he advised, revolted, and were suppressed by the princes, including the Protestant ones, with the support of Luther. The movie doesn't show Luther's support of the suppression, nor that he wasn't about to go against the Protestant princes who had supported him. We see Philip of Hesse, but not Luther allowing Philip's bigamy because Luther again didn't want to oppose a political patron. We also don't see the German princes looting and burning the monasteries as would Henry VIII in England, acts of supreme vandalism and barbarism.The movie only hints at the real problems Rome had with Luther over the Mass, which he shelved, and their interpretations of original sin. The film also breaks off before Luther's bitter old age, especially his descent into extreme anti-Semitism and scatological attacks on the Catholic Church and the Pope, some of which is translated in the Marius biography.Finally, in 1517, almost everybody in Europe was Christian; today, less than 10% are. I doubt Luther quite expected things to turn out this way.