2003 Talk About Movies
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Contents © 2003
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

TALK ABOUT MOVIES
November 2003

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Directed by Eric Till. Starring Joseph Fiennes, Peter Ustinov. 2003, 113 minutes, Color, English, German. Now in theaters.

Ernie: The anachronisms -- terms like "your failure to see the big picture" -- speak of a modern mind at work. They make Luther a saint in the modern sense. For them, Luther's break with the Church is not about what's right and wrong, it's about freedom. But that wasn't Luther's notion. He thought that the Church had strayed from the path of truth. The film asserts that he feels remorse about the slaughtered peasants; that way, it can portray him as a freedom crusader. But I don't think there's any historical basis for that. Matthew: The film is an attempt to promote the supremacy of the individual conscience and to portray Luther as a man whose religion will not be sullied by worldly political concerns -- indulgences to build St. Peter's. His faith is pure, and he loves reason over dogma. Ernie: But there was a very political question at the heart of the schism Luther caused. Prince Friedrich is intrigued by the notion of German money for the German church.

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Ernie: They touch on everything, but most of it badly. The theological subtlety of the actual 95 Theses is totally lost. Matthew: It packs in so much history that it isn't even a good history lesson.