Marcia and I watched the movie “Luther” last night. This is a theatrical biography of Martin Luther, the German monk that started the Reformation, leading to the formation of the Protestant churches. Including the one that bears his name, the Lutheran Church.
You can find a lot of great info about Luther and his doctorines on the internet. One site inparticular that I found was “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”. This is named after the title of probably the most famous hymm written by Luther.
Basics are that Luther was a Catholic monk and a Doctor of Theology in the early 1500′s, assigned to the church in Wittenberg, Germany. He grew frustrated at the papal abuses and the sale of indulgences by church officials. So he wrote a list, his Ninety-Five Theses, attacking these problems. He then nailed the list to the door of the church. (Back in those days, many things were nailed to the church door …… it acted like a community bulletin board.) The day that he did this is celebrated in the Protestant churches as “The Reformation”.
The movie goes deep into the politics that were played out in Rome by the Pope and the Cardinals, and those played out in the royal courts of Germany. The movie also concentrated on Luther’s work to write a version of the Bible in German so that the comman man could read it, and the fall out effect it had on the church and royals in Germany.
There were two things about the movie that I had a bit of a problem with. One is just because of my lack of knowledge. It might have been very well true. I know Luther struggled with the fact that he was a sinner and how could God look upon him with mercy. And it wasn’t until he came across some passages in the scriptures that he realized that God knows we are not perfect, and never will be able to live our lives as we should, but through Christ’s mercy he forgives us and always will if we are willing. And through those parts of the movie where he struggles with this, Luther is protrayed with an almost frenzy and maniac like reactions, locking himself up in a room and talking/arguing with himself. If taken out of context, you could say that the character being portrayed was mentally ill.
The second thing that I had a problem with was totally on the theatrical end. There was no lead up to the point where Luther nailed the Theses to the door. To me, this is a huge moment. Because symbolically, it is the start of the Protestant Church. Yet it was treated as just another event leading up to the end result.
The movie itself was very good. It was interesting to see the events played out before us. It is especially interesting for Marcia and I, since we have really grown comfortable with attending a Lutheran church the last three years (we were both baptised and raised Roman Catholic). Marcia was hired as the music director and organist, and over the last two years have considered ourselves unofficial members, feeling very comfortable and agreeing with the doctorines of the Lutheran Church. I don’t know how factual the movie was, or to say how many liberties the script writer and/or director took. But it was all very well acted out. Joseph Fiennes (Ralph’s younger brother) played Luther, and did a great job. Also Jonathan Firth (Colin’s younger brogher) was very intense as Cardinal Girolamo Aleandro, the Pope’s “right hand man” who was after Luther. And along with this was a great performance from the late Sir Peter Ustinov as Frederick the Wise, the Elector of Saxony, a great ally and protector of Luther.
For those that worship in a Lutheran Church, I would recommend seeing this movie. Quite honestly, I recommend any Christian to watch this movie.
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