Product: Luther [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Germany ]
Rating: 5.0
Beautiful Costume Period Piece with a Message
LUTHER succeeds on many levels: the historical data is solid, the settings in Germany and Rome in the early 16th century are meticulously recreated, the script is superb, and the acting is uniformly excellent. Clocking in at just over two hours, LUTHER offers a biography of one of the important periods in history - that of the forming of the Reformation.The story is so well known that it does not bear repeating. Suffice it to say that the external and internal demons that propelled Martin Luther to break away from the Roman Catholic Church with all its inherent odious evils present at that time during the reign of Pope Leo are presented in an understandable, dramatic way. Joseph Fiennes as Luther gives an exemplary performance as do the other fine actors cast in this film - Bruno Ganz, Claire Cox, Jonathan Firth, Benjamin Sadler, Marco Hofschneider (remember 'Europa, Europa'? - he is grown up now), and Mattieu Carriere, among others. But one of the finest roles in this film is Frederick the Wise as portrayed in the last hurrah of Sir Peter Ustinov. This is an award winning performance.The accompanying featurettes of actors discussing the film and the story are quite good - especially Ustinov's cogent evaluation of Fiennes as an actor, the credibility of the sets and costumes, etc. Yes, there are errors of omission (Luther was far more than a revolutionary), but the overall feeling after the final scene in LUTHER is one of having witnessed a solid flashback to a moving historical incident. Well worth viewing and re-viewing.Grady Harp