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Film
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Luther
British director Eric Till, known for his extensive work in Canada, tackles the story of sixteenth century Protestant religious icon Martin Luther.
Monday, September 29, 2003
By Larry Carroll
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Attending Catholic School as a child, there was an unending stream of mandatory hours of religious education to endure. Most lessons were presented in a dry, factual, unentertaining manner that made it very difficult to care, and few did.
The one religious character that always seemed to shine through, however, no matter who lectured on him, was Martin Luther. After months of the monks haranguing about religious doctrine and what God supposedly wanted from us, how could a group of kids not be intrigued by the thought of a rebel, questioning authority, risking his reputation and life to walk up to the Wittenberg Church and nail his Ninety-Five Theses to the door?
Seventy-four year old director Eric Till, a veteran of TV shows from The
Streets of San Francisco to Fraggle Rock, attempts to bring the story of
this religious icon to life with Luther, an informative but lifeless film that features several above-average performances. The film's colorless presentation and failure to properly milk the big moments for their worth, coupled with a production value that fails to impress, keeps this from being anything more than one of those videos that future Catholic school teachers will play for their students to pass the time on a rainy Friday.
Till chose Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love) to play the anguished father
of Protestant faith, a choice that makes too much sense, if that's possible. Aside from enduring a bowl-haircut, Fiennes takes few risks while portraying the events of Luther's life.
Inspired by a particularly nasty thunderstorm, Luther pledges his life to God and soon afterwards enters the order of the Augustinian Hermits in Erfurt. After joining the faculty at Wittenberg University, Luther's refusal to accept established doctrine raises many an eyebrow and gets him a reputation as a troublemaker.
Luther's biggest gripe (as the film paints it) is with the "indulgences" that the Church was selling well into the early Sixteenth century. In exchange for money, religious figures would promise a place in heaven for the paying individual or their loved ones.
The film does bring the abuses of the time to life effectively, such as in the scene where we see a mass of peasants scaling a series of stone steps on their knees, reciting the "Our Father" on each level because they've been promised it will free a loved one from purgatory. Watching moments like this, one can easily understand the motivation behind Luther's mission.
Banned from teaching and betrayed by virtually all his friends, Luther was excommunicated when he refused to recant. The film recalls these events, as well as the breakthrough of translating his work into the German vernacular of the common people.
Fiennes goes through the motions appropriately enough, but spends so much
time with the same blank, anguished stare on his face that there is a fatal
lack of humanity in his portrayal. Till, also, is guilty of becoming so overcome by the gravity of his subject that he sucks much of the life out of it.
The worst casualty of Till’s storytelling is the love affair between Luther and Katerina von Bora (Claire Cox, Shooting Fish), a remarkable historical figure in her own right. Besides being woefully underrepresented in the film as an individual, Katerina's relationship with Luther is presented with a lack of dramatic tension that makes their controversial marriage seem like a mere footnote.
The structure of the script, by Bart Gavigan and Camille Thomasson, tries nobly to defy the standard three-act restrictions of most screenplays but loses the battle, sticking the audience with a stiff end crawl just when it's time for a momentous climax. Their work results in some long, slow stretches of tediousness, as well as the pronounced hurried feeling of having too much information for a one hundred and twenty-one minute movie. These two problems would seem to contradict each other, but somehow they co-exist in Luther.
The strength of the movie lies in the strong supporting turns by several veteran actors that Till was able to employ. The chameleon-like Alfred Molina (Identity) shines brightest as a lackey for Pope Leo who sells indulgences. Playing a character named Johann Tetzel, Molina brings humor and sliminess to his role while never betraying the historical accuracy his director seems to be so intent on maintaining. A talented actor who seems to make any role interesting, Molina truly shines here.
Also managing to steal some scenes for himself is the amazing Peter Ustinov,
eighty-two years young and still going strong. Ustinov, as Prince Friedrich the Wise, is a delight in his few scenes as an endearingly self-deprecating mentor. Bruno Ganz (Strapless) and Jonathan Firth (An Ideal Husband) also make favorable impressions in supporting roles.
| Although the elements are all there - good subject, solid acting, a faithfulness to history - Till's movie is most notable for achieving the impossible: making Martin Luther's story into a snooze fest. His directorial style certainly leaves a lot to be desired, but things could have been worse - he could have become a teacher instead.
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