Another historical film, of course about Martin Luther (1483-1546), the reformer of the Christian faith. Joseph Fiennes (“Shakespeare In Love”, “Elizabeth”) is Luther, a man who ends up in a monastry where he stays for many years. Then he is sent to Rome and after that to a university to study theology. He quickly becomes professor. Especially during his visit to Rome, his view of what Christianity should be is smashed to pieces by the reallity that he sees. Payments make sure that you spend fewer time in purgatory, monks go to prostitutes and priests don’t care about the common people. Luther starts to write books in the language of the common man (German in his case) making points of his findings. The people finally find someone to agree with, so Luther becomes popular and a threat to the Roman church. This church tries to make him a heretic and to get rid off him. While secretly being kept in prison (to prevent him from being killed by the authorities), Luther translates the New Testament into German and the Roman church sees a growing menace in him. In the same time people revolt basing themself on ‘Luther’s ideas’ which aren’t his ideas at all, so he comes forth from his hiding place trying to get things back in order.
“Luther” is a nice drama giving a nice overview of the happenings around the person who split the Christian Church. Educating and amusing, so if you are interested in this part of history, this film is a nice watch. Now we need films about Calvin, Swingly, etc., because this is only one side of the reformation of course.