A
biopic about the life of Martin Luther is a most ambitious
undertaking indeed, and director Eric Till has responded
to the challenge with Luther as a study of a man whose
ideas successfully challenge the ossified theology of Roman
Catholicism under Leo XII as well as the imperialistic
ambitions of the Holy Roman Empire under Charles V. The
film begins with an adult Luther (played
by Ralph Fiennes) walking on a road in the night, so besieged
by lightning in a storm that he is convinced that God is
calling him to greatness, similar to the conversion of
Saul on the road to Damascus. He then abandons the study
of law to enter the Augustinian order in 1506. Soon, the
clear-thinking mind of a lawyer confronts something very
odd about the way Christianity is being practiced. On a
pilgrimage from Erfurt to Rome, he is horrified that salvation
is being promoted through a ritual of climbing up stone
steps, using the knees, to reach a summit where further
indulgences are sold, while priests visit brothels and
accept coins before the faithful scrape their knees on
the steps. In short, the religion to which he has committed
himself is simply getting rich on formalistic practices
that have nothing to do with sacred beliefs. When he returns
to Erfurt, Johann von Staupitz (played by Bruno Ganz) concludes
that Luther should be studying at a theological university,
so he sends Luther to Wittenberg University in Saxony,
which is ruled by eccentric Prince Friedrich (played by
Peter Ustinov). As a student, he learns quickly, spotting
contradictions in conventional theology. For example, he
questions the view that salvation can only come through
Rome by noting that the consequence of such a view, which
is contradicted by Scripture, would be to condemn all Greek
Christians. Soon his teacher and fellow students are swept
into the logic of his rigorous interpretations of the Bible.
Meanwhile, the pope wants to rebuild St. Peter's Basilica,
a most expensive project, so he sends Johan Tetzel (played
by Alfred Molina) throughout Germany to promise eternal
salvation as a reward for making monetary contributions
so that Rome can pay back a loan from the Fuggers. Furious
that Tetzel is playing a trick on the people, in 1517 Luther
nails Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the Wittenberg
Cathedral, and soon Tetzel's contributions dry up. Whereas
previous efforts to question Rome were quickly forgotten
and easily silenced, now the existence of the printing
press means that Luther's document is widely distributed.
Rome is angry. In 1521, Luther is summoned to a confrontation
at Worms where he refuses to recant the Ninety-Five Theses
as well as other writings, resulting in his excommunication
by Leo XII (played by Uwe Ochsenknecht). Fearing that Luther
would be assassinated, Prince Friedrich, who has been trying
to retain the cash in Saxony that previously flowed to
Rome to fund papal extravagances, then arranges to kidnap
him and to hide him out, thereby giving Luther an opportunity
to translate the Bible into German. However, Luther's refusal
to bow to Rome emboldens some of his fellow theological
professors in his absence to speak out, which in turn triggers
a peasant revolt in Saxony, since the common people conclude
that they have been cheated by a false religion of graven
images, indulgences, and phony saints. After as many as
100,000 peasants die in the uprising, Luther is summoned
to restore order. However, in 1530, the princes of Germany
are summoned before the Holy Roman Emperor (played by Torben
Liebrecht) at Augsburg to renounce the new Lutheran teachings,
but the princes remain defiant. The film ends as Luther
marries Katerina von Borg (played by Claire Cox), and Protestantism
begins to spread. Titles at the end indicate that somewhat
over 500 million Protestants now worship throughout the
world, attributing to Luther the eventual recognition of
the need for religious freedom. However, that recognition
took nearly a century after the Wars of Religion (1562-1598)
and the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), which culminated
in the Treaty of Westphalia of 1648, which then recognized
that each state was free to choose its own state religion
independent of Rome. The purpose of the film is clearly
to challenge Roman Catholicism even today, as the most
profound statement in the film, by Cardinal Cajetan (played
by Mathieu Carrière), is that the pope and his advisers
at the time of Luther were intellectually incapable of
grasping the opportunity for a reform that might have prevented
a split in Christianity. But of course Roman Catholicism
in 2003 remains a theologically conservative, and Luther hints
that the reason as before is found in the politics of running
a vast church where common people, deemed intellectually
incapable of understanding the basis for their beliefs,
are expected to follow ritual and tradition. MH
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