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Luther [2003]


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Uninspiring but ultimately rewarding
Review date: 2008-11-01 Rating: 6 out of 10

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.


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Fine bio pic of a very controversial historical figure
Review date: 2008-08-15 Rating: 8 out of 10

I was interested to see how a modern day film would portray the original and most influential leader of the Reformation, and particularly keen to see if they would attempt to water down the aspects which would jar with our increasingly politically correct culture. Or would they do as several other recent films have done and to try to rewrite history or severly proscribe one side in their treatment of events. Historical event movies are open to such abuse and political licence that there is always a bit of a rumpus between two opposing factions when they are released - witness Kingdom of Heaven, U571, The Patriot and the notorious Braveheart to name a handful of the many that have stirred some debate about who's version of history the big Hollywood studios are trying to put out. This film however, seemed to be released so quietly that I do not recall any fuss being made about it all, and certainly no controversy, and yet it is based on the most controversial and influential events in the history of the Christian movement since its very traumatic, drawn out inception as a major world religion.

So this got me wondering with some trepidation, did the movie sort of soften it all up a bit and present a more paletable but less true version of events just to suit our modern sensibilities? Well, I'm not the best judge of that, as you'd need scholars from both sides, plus a few independent experts on the events just to eek out one basic consensus of how it did. But I can say that on the surface, from the outline text book history that I know of, the language used and the sharpness of tones and turn of events shown, the film did, very commendably, portray the real force and real bitterness of the breakaway movement and the sheer determination of the man Luther, to lead his beloved union with God out of, shall we say, the stale and polluted waters that he and his folowers felt the all supreme Church of Rome had fallen into.

My only quibble with the film would be its slight lack of charisma, and I would have to say 'charisma' is the word, because from the few biographies I ever read on the 'mad monk', charisma is one attribute they all agree that Martin Luther possessed in abundance. Fiennes is actually alright in that department, playing him with passion at times, but what I am referring to is general cinematic charisma. If they had gone to town on some of the scenes this movie could have been in the same league as those old Charlton Heston historicals, and it isn't as if they didn't have the material to do it - For a monk Luther got himself around a bit and some famous stories grew around him. The film does have a bit of his animated soul searching here, making onlookers question his sanity, but they don't show the famous throwing ink at the devil incident, whether just a story or not. And the most famous of them is shown, but my word, there is no fan fare to this at all, it is simply shown as a minor act. The old Hollywood films of the 50s would have spent five minutes on that legendary act, the pinning of the 95 theses to his church door. So it seems this film went far more for the matter of fact approach than the big charismatic picture approach. Maybe this is why the Germans seem to like the film so much, as they love their detail and factuality, but maybe, possibly, this style was dictated to them by the still rather touchy subject matter, and the general fear many have now for appearing offensive or politically incorrect. A bit of a shame if that is the case, but that's the way things are now.



Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Jonathan Firth
Peter Ustinov
Bruno Ganz
Alfred Molina
Joseph Fiennes

Creators:
Joseph Fiennes (Primary Contributor)
Alfred Molina (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Metrodome Distribution
Manufacturer: Metrodome Distribution
EAN: 5055002530173
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2007-02-05
Audience rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 119 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2003
Language: English (Original Language)

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