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Luther
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Additional DVD options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
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Genre | Drama, Documentary/Biography |
Format | NTSC, Closed-captioned, Subtitled, Dolby, Widescreen, Color, AC-3, Multiple Formats |
Contributor | Maria Simon, Alfred Molina, Bart Gavigan, Peter Ustinov, Bruno Ganz, Eric Till, Claire Cox, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Benjamin Sadler, Torben Liebrecht, Alexander Thies, Joseph Fiennes, Christian P. Stehr, Camille Thomasson, Dennis A. Clauss, Brigitte Rochow, Jochen Horst, Jonathan Firth, Mathieu Carrière See more |
Language | English, Latin |
Runtime | 2 hours and 3 minutes |
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Product Description
Product Description
Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love) stars as Martin Luther, the brilliant man of God whose defiant actions changed the world, in this epic, ravishingly beautiful (The New York Times)film that traces Luther's extraordinary and exhilarating quest for the people's liberation. Regional princes and the powerful Church wield a fast, firm and merciless grip on 16th-century Germany. But when Martin Luther issues a shocking challenge to their authority, the people declare him their new leaderand hero. Even when threatened with violent death, Luther refuses to back down, sparkinga bloody revolution that shakes the entire continent to its core.
Amazon.com
Like The Passion of the Christ, Luther is the story of a spiritual leader, German monk Martin Luther (Joseph Fiennes), in opposition to the religious orthodoxy of the time (in his case, the 1500s). His goal--to bring God to the people and to take money, fear, and shame out of the equation--made him a reformer to some, a heretic to others. Released around the same time as Mel Gibson's blockbuster, it failed to attract the same degree of attention--or controversy. Granted, it's a different film, but not radically so. Directed by Eric Till (Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace), Luther isn't always easy to follow or as emotionally involving as it could be. That said, it's a fascinating story and Fiennes receives solid support from Alfred Molina (Frida), Bruno Ganz (Wings of Desire), and the late Sir Peter Ustinov (Spartacus), in his final film role, as Frederick the Wise. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Product details
- Aspect Ratio : 1.85:1
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)
- Product Dimensions : 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.75 inches; 0.01 ounces
- Item model number : 2222300
- Director : Eric Till
- Media Format : NTSC, Closed-captioned, Subtitled, Dolby, Widescreen, Color, AC-3, Multiple Formats
- Run time : 2 hours and 3 minutes
- Release date : November 30, 2004
- Actors : Joseph Fiennes, Bruno Ganz, Peter Ustinov, Alfred Molina, Jonathan Firth
- Subtitles: : English, Spanish
- Producers : Alexander Thies, Bart Gavigan, Brigitte Rochow, Christian P. Stehr, Dennis A. Clauss
- Language : Unqualified, English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
- Studio : Mgm (Video & DVD)
- ASIN : B0002C9D9U
- Writers : Bart Gavigan, Camille Thomasson
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #9,790 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #1,425 in Drama DVDs
- Customer Reviews:
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It is easy to see why Joseph Fiennes, then fresh from SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, was cast as Martin Luther: thin and fair, even pale, he looks like nineteenth-century depictions of the young Luther by such artists as James Tissot, and not unlike the few from-life portraits of him. Fiennes' long face, with wide hazel eyes that can burn with fear, anger, or compassion, is always "readable," a perfect reflector of emotion. He is great at conveying the young monk's sincere piety, extreme anxiety about Hell, and barely controlled rage at the Church corruption he sees. His scenes with his sympathetic confessor (Bruno Ganz) and his scene before the intimidating Cardinal Cajetan (Mathieu Carriere) are particularly poignant and riveting, as are the scenes in which he visits Rome and sees its corruption firsthand.
Though Luther's disillusionment with the Catholic Church is clear in Fiennes' portrayal, the staunch Catholics in LUTHER are not cardboard villains. The kind-faced Alfred Molina, for example, makes indulgence seller Johan Tetzel oddly easy to relate to; you feel that his intentions are pure. Jonathan Firth (younger brother of Colin, just as Joseph Fiennes is the younger brother of Ralph) is an elegant Giralomo Aleander, the Vatican official who oversees Luther's trial. Sir Peter Ustinov (himself a Lutheran), who died just months after LUTHER premiered, is a joy to watch as Prince Frederick the Wise, Luther's supporter. Other delights include the German actor Torben Liebrecht, who looks uncannily like the youthful portraits of the Holy Roman Emperor he portrays; a "cameo appearance" by Louis Cranach, the Renaissance artist who painted Luther's portrait; and a period song with which Claire Cox, who makes the most of her brief scenes as Luther's strong-willed wife, serenades her fiancé.
The movie's one drawback is its less-than-perfect screenplay. The "riot" scenes that follow Luther's trial (the smashing of the icons, the Peasants' Revolt) are telescoped, melodramatic, and simply less interesting than are the "theological" scenes. Moreover, the screenplay seems to assume a certain level of prior audience familiarity with both medieval theology and Reformation history; it would be good, then, to know something about both before watching LUTHER. But theology is a hard topic to make entertaining for the masses, and in LUTHER the attempt was very nearly a complete success.
The film is very accurate to historical records. I gained an even deeper appreciation for Luther that quickly blossomed into a debt of gratitude. I came to see how much of my spiritual life owes a deep debt to Martin Luther's bravery and inspirations despite his own battle with powerful feelings of inadequacy.
Joseph Fiennes delivers a superb performance. There are a couple of points where I didn't quite connect to how Joseph Fiennes conveyed Luther's struggles, but the acting is top notch. Joseph Fiennes is my personal favorite actor at present.
I am immersed in Luther's works now, thanks to this movie and Fiennes' portrayal. Martin Luther was a Joseph Smith of the pre-dispensation, a Prophet in all regards short of having the Priesthood restored to him, and a figure so pivotal to human history he ranks as one of the greatest ever to walk this earth.
This movie deserves far more attention than it has received.
Top reviews from other countries
‘Protestant’ has the word ‘protest’ in it. Luther’s protest was a peasants’ revolt. Power resided in the collective might of the people, not in a slim ruling elite in Rome. The Reformation was a revolt to claim and legitimize this power, the power of the word of God returned to the people, where it belonged. Christ was the humblest of men. He taught in the open air on hilltops, in villages, from the backs of donkeys, not in temples and cathedrals. He wore simple cassocks, not robes with ermine furs, vestments, gold chains and pointy hats. His sermons came from the heart, not from liturgies and rituals. His message was clear and simple, the link to God intimate and personal. No one can know your heart because it’s yours, not theirs. Only God knows what you know. An outsider, the Pope is as ignorant as all the rest. Put your faith in God, not the church. Not even in the emerging Protestant churches, Luther would later say. They are but sanctuaries for personal testament to God, there to support your faith, not exploit it.
The protest of course was also political. If the Pope wanted to build St. Peter’s in Rome and other sumptuous edifices to the glory of the Catholic Church, he could do it with his own coin, not monies taken from the meagre incomes of poor believers through taxes called indulgences. Luther therefore called out the Church of Rome, fingering it as a sort of confidence racket. This was his view, his dangerous assertion, and it ensured he would be a marked man, a radical monk with seditious, heretical ideas who would burn at the stake for his apostasy, as many before him had. But, fateful or not, it was his destiny to survive, to start a chain reaction that would fracture Western civilization, cleaving it in two.
At the Diet of Worms, his public trial in 1521, he refused to recant:
“Unless I am convicted of error by the testimony of Scripture…I cannot and will not retract [what I have written]…Here I stand. God help me!”
Four years earlier, in 1517, he had hammered his 95 declarations/arguments into the heavy wooden double doors of All Saints’ Church in the town of Wittenberg in Saxony. His demands were written in Latin to the Church of Rome, but they were also meant to be read by the people, so copies were printed in German and widely distributed throughout the town and well beyond.
Right man, right place, right time, aided by the genius of Gutenberg and his printing presses. So this is the way the pieces fall into place through the dubious lens of hindsight. Pope Leo X charged Luther with heresy. Luther responded by breaking with the Catholic faith, publicly denouncing it as corrupt and reactionary. When the written Papal decree of apostasy reached Luther he burned it publicly in the town square. Talk about spoiling for a fight! At this stage Luther was embracing his martyrdom, calling on God’s intervention if it so pleased Him to be merciful. Evidently God took notice. Luther was saved from the flames by influential friends in high places. For instance, Prince Frederick the Wise, founder of the University of Wittenberg, who risked his own life by having his men abduct Luther after the Diet of Worms, allowing Luther to escape and find safe refuge with sympathisers. This suited many German princes who detested the power of Rome. They hated the greed of local bishops whose authority drained their incomes and prevented reform. Reducing or eliminating the power of these parasitic emissaries of the Pope was welcomed by these princes. Game on!
A thunder storm rages as the film opens. Lightning flashes in the blackness of the night. A young man is caught out in the deluge, alone on a muddy country road. He is soaked through. He lies face down and beseeches God, “I’ll become a monk. I’ll give myself to you. Just spare me!”
Whether this truly happened or not (as Luther claimed it did), it’s a good allegory. The year was 1505 and Luther was 22. Thereafter, two years later, we see him as an Augustinian monk in Erfurt under the care of Johann von Staupitz, Luther’s Father Superior. Young Luther is still unsettled, still wrestling with his demons. He hears voices and suffers through fits. Tortured by doubt, he wonders if his own father had been right in telling him to study law, not theology. Is this really his destiny to be a monk? He beseeches God for an answer. He needs to find a proper direction to his life.
Father Johann steadies him. The older man sees his passion and intelligence. He knows great things are possible for Luther if his intellect is properly applied. Father Johann helps give him the strength and confidence to endure, to believe in himself and accept the path he is on instead of dwelling on regrets, his failings and sins. It’s not through self-punishment that one finds enlightenment, but through all the blessings that flow from Christ’s love. This is the lesson Luther learns from Father Johann and it’s a strength and insight that will sustain him through all the turmoil to come. The love of the Saviour will be his strength and armour. He will fight his many enemies with books and ideas, not with swords and other weapons. His triumphs, if there were to be any, would be intellectual, philosophical, theological. He was a warrior of the spirit, not one of the flesh.
His path to Wittenberg was paved by Father Johann. There Luther taught theology at the university. It was also there that his writings on church reform would occur. Earlier as a divinity student he had spent time in Rome as a pilgrim. What he saw there astonished and appalled him. In the film he says this to Father Johann:
“Rome is a circus, a running sewer. You can buy anything: sex, salvation. They have brothels just for clerics.”
Rome comes to Wittenberg in the form of John Tetzel, an emissary from the Vatican. Tetzel’s job is to fill the church’s coffers with monies given for indulgences (penance for sins that can ensure safe passage to Paradise in the afterlife). Whether Tetzel is disingenuous or a true believer we don’t know, but like any present-day Evangelical he’s charismatic and good at attracting money. Good man for the Pope, then.
Luther is incensed. The poor German peasants cannot read the indulgences that are given to them. They are written in Latin, and even in Latin they are vague, virtually meaningless like any horoscope is. Even if the indulgences had been written in German, many of the people would not have understood what they said, as most of the people were poor and illiterate.
Luther’s reforms were launched by the scandal and scam of indulgences. The practice was intolerable to him and had to be stamped out. If it could not be, well then, let’s see where this takes us.
Of course it took him directly onto a collision course with Rome. But Luther was clever and had allies in Germany, especially in Wittenberg. Everyone understood some reforms were needed. A complete break with the Catholic Church had not been envisaged, not even by Luther. But the intransigence of Rome made it inevitable. One thing led to the next, and one of the most important of these was Luther’s translation of the entire New Testament from Latin into vernacular German. It was a work of genius, something never attempted by one man before. For the first time, in their own language, Germans who could read German were able to see what the Scriptures truly said. It was a revelation that changed everything. Copies were printed. The wildfire spread. The Reformation was on and there was nothing Rome could do to stop it anymore.
By the time of the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 the Vatican had essentially conceded defeat. Protestant churches were already flourishing in Germany and fanning out across northern Europe, especially into the Low Countries and Scandinavia. The Reformation was secure. Game over.
The film ends after Augsburg with Luther married to Katharina von Bora, a former nun freed from her vows by the Reformation. Their marriage in 1523 caused further outrage in Rome, but at this stage Luther was past caring. They went on to have six children.
In the new church Luther wrote sermons and hymns and preached. His hymns survive to this day. In fact, as a boy I sang some of them in our local Lutheran Church. The first and only time I sat through a Roman Catholic mass was at age 12 with a neighbourhood friend. I thought I was on another planet surrounded by alien beings and was very glad to return to Earth when the bizarre service ended. Thank you, Martin Luther.
The secular view in our age is modern. Most people who ever lived would not have understood our thinking. They had no science, no way of understanding the composition of the material reality that surrounded them. If we are the beneficiaries of modern scientific knowledge, it makes the religious past look strange and alien. Were the doctrinal differences between various Christian sects (even within Protestantism itself) so great to warrant all the hatred and bloodshed that occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries?
Thomas Huxley, Darwin’s bulldog, is an eminently modern voice when he says:
“The Reformation was the scraping of a little rust off the chains which still bind the mind…Darwinism is the New Reformation.”
Indeed it is. Science, not divine revelation, has made truths about the world accessible to us. The Bible has and will always have a revered place in Western culture. Our culture is founded on both this book and Christianity. We are all religious, culturally speaking. But ours is not a religiosity that depends any longer on fables in the Bible to understand the world, and for that we should feel grateful.
He was a radical, a rebel, though he never set out to be. His life and fate were ironic. He brought the roof of the Catholic Church crashing down and we still live among the chaos of its rubble today, the church an anachronism, a relic from another age with a tarnished authority that only the truly devout take seriously anymore.
Luther also resisted the power of the Catholic church, exposing the fear that was put upon the people so that they would give of their few resources to the church. Superstition was rampant. Earlier in dedicating himself to God, Luther prayed, "I am Yours. Save me." For the rest of Luther's life, God answered that prayer, saving not only Luther but through Luther preaching the true Gospel about the love of God, God saved a nation. From Germany, the Gospel of Jesus Christ traveled through Europe and eventually around the world. Luther paid a price for his obedience to God and often lived in fear for his life. In the end, God blessed him with support and a wife (who was formerly a nun) and children. God used Luther's life and dedication to Himself to set a strong foundation of truth from the Word of God, in the church.
The performances were superb. Sets and costumes were authentic and realistic, right down to the dirt and squalor that the peasants lived in compared to the opulence and wealth that surrounded the hierarchy in the church. There is violence in this movie that would prevent younger children from watching it. I highly recommend this movie. I found that now I'm even more appreciative of the sacrifices made by other Christians before me, so that I have true knowledge of the salvation Jesus purchased for me on the cross. A quote from Luther: "My conscience is captive to the Word of God".