Luther Movie Response

Response Paper: Luther (2006)

The 2003 film Luther depicts the founder of Lutheranism, Martin Luther, as one of the first individuals to radically and successfully offer a competing doctrine to that of Roman Catholicism. Luther is seen as a sincere man who becomes a monk out of faith and for no other reason, in contrast to many other religious men of the period. Luther breaks with the Catholic Church because of his horror at the selling of indulgences. As the text makes clear, Luther was not necessarily opposed to the selling of indulgences per se; what he was vehemently against was the manner in which they were being sold. At the time, the Pope was desperate to raise money and had signed an order effectively pardoning the buyer from all sin, as well as all of the buyer’s friends or relatives, living or dead. The purchase was supposed to be valid, even if the buyer did not submit to the holy sacraments of confession, penance, and repentance.
Luther was outraged by this because, he felt, this effectively rendered the need for confession invalid and reduced faith to a mere transaction. When Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of the church, he had no intention of creating a new religion. He wished, rather, for Catholicism to return to what he considered its true origins. The Luther of the film, in contrast, is an individualistic firebrand who is disgusted with the selling of indulgences in general. It is easy to see why the film made this choice, given that even many Catholics today would find the manner in which indulgences were viewed by the pre-Reformation church to be off-putting. Indulgences were a way for people to work around what could be a very lengthy sentence of fasting and prayer for sin, and being cut off from the church was a serious matter in an era in which the church was so important in politics and society.
Also, back in Luther’s day, purgatory was seen as a real, physical place from which sinners needed to be released. Luther’s eventual opposition to theological concepts not found in the Bible was another reason for his rebellion. The film does not have the time to dramatize such subtle theological differences, however, which would have been extremely important to Catholics of that era. Luther in the film is portrayed as having a kind of fully-fledged theology, even though the historical Luther only created a new religion after his ideas were rejected by the church and all dialogue was shut down. He is also shown as being disgusted by all of the sin and hypocrisy of the Catholic clergy, even though, even in Luther’s day, it was widely known that the Popes had illegitimate children and flagrantly disobeyed many moral laws. Even Luther’s quoting of the Bible and use of the text is anachronistic, since the current Protestant Bible was not structured as it is today until many years after the movie is set.
The film portrays Martin Luther as a kind of modern, individualistic rebel. From a cinematic viewpoint, this certainly makes the film more compelling, since the viewer is encouraged to identify with Luther on a very personal level, including his eventual romance with a nun. It does convey Luther’s charisma, which he likely had in real life, given the fact he was able to mobilize people to start a new religion. It is also accurate in many critical places, including the fact that Luther did, according to most records, have genuine spiritual concern for the souls of the persons buying indulgences combined with a fear that they would be damned if they believed that they could buy favor with God.
The film also gets all of the dramatic personages and major events correct, including Luther’s conflict with both John Tetzel and Pope Leo, his eventual trial, and final excommunication. The drama may have been emphasized for modern audiences and the conflicts simplified, but the film is still a good introduction to the personalities and issues of the period. It is biased and may offend some Catholics but helps the reader understand why Luther was so persuasive and also why the Church was eventually forced to reform itself in response to Luther.
Work Cited
Luther. Directed by Eric Till and Marc Canosa, 2006.