Luther Movie Commentary

So, for our first session of Dr. Bennett's Cultural Memory course we watched Luther (that is, until the projector bulb exploded 10 minutes before the end of the film). It's a good movie, and very informative for me given that I know very little about Martin Luther.

The movie itself did much, much better in Germany than America when it opened, and I think in part this is because of how Luther himself is portrayed. Joseph Fiennes does an excellent job of portraying Luther as a conflicted, divided man and I think that is what makes the movie appealing. (Although I have to admit, Luther's little yelling-at-myself bits were a bit overdramatic.) But here in Lutherstadt Wittenberg (and probably most of Germany) Martin Luther has this god-like status where his work shapes the perception of him. That is, it's easier to think of Martin Luther based on the context of the immense societal change his work caused (a rebel, etc) instead of a man.

That's what made the movie for me--Luther is not really an enigma that the viewer cannot connect to. He has problems, doubts, and fears much like every other human being. He is portrayed as a rebel, but as a rebel that is trying to reform a corrupt Church and show the common people how corrupt the Church really is. Also, Martin Luther in the film focuses a lot on God as a just, loving God--this reflects his own inner struggle with his faith, and which makes him more human. It's nice to know that others struggle, you know? Even famous religious reformers.

One thing I didn't like was that towards the end I felt they rushed a lot of things. All of a sudden Katharina von Bora shows up and is all "we'll make beautiful music together, Martin, you'll see" and suddenly they get married. I know that Katharina is a very important aspect of Martin Luther's life, but it felt like she was literally thrown in 3/4 of the way through the movie, and it was a bit jarring. Other than strange time-skipping, the film was pretty good and I enjoyed it (in part because it was good, but also because it was so overdramatic at parts).