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Written by XXX; directed by Eric Till; starring Joseph Fiennes. Released to DVD on November 23, 2004. It’s a little known fact and a rather interesting Hollywood footnote that the movie Antwone Fisher, about the heroic plight of Navy seaman Antwone Fisher, was written by Antwone Fisher. Comedian Dave Chappelle had a field day with this when it emerged, talking at length about the crisis in objectivity that would arise when someone decided to write a screenplay that was based upon their own life. And really, can anyone blame him? When you see an obvious conflict of interest in a given film, it’s hard to give the movie the same benefit of the doubt that you afford to other projects. Financed by a company called Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, I found director Eric Till’s biopic on Martin Luther, the founder of the Lutheran church, to be fatally flawed from the film’s very first title card forward. All joking aside, this was on par with Mr. Burns attempts to both produce and star in a movie to help soften his image in The Simpsons. Joseph Fiennes stars in Luther as the titular character, the aforementioned Martin Luther. When we are first introduced to Luther, he is a melodramatically afflicted up-and-comer in the Catholic church. Constantly in his own head, questioning everything about Catholicism and the proper way to treat his fellow man, Luther is not a favorite companion or associate of many of his fellow monks. After several years of intense studying and traveling, Luther has shaped a much different religion in his mind. After writing down his 95 different thoughts on the matter, he posted his list–now referred to as his 95 Theses–on the door of the church at Wittenberg and Protestants were created. Luther’s act of protest (from which the term Protestant was derived) is one of the greater and most influential acts of individual disobedience in the history of western civilization. With this in mind, I rather expected a dramatic and substantial investigation into what drove Luther and what framework created the back-story for his religious epiphany and rebellion. What I instead saw was a sadly paint-by-numbers and extremely formulaic portrayal of one of the more important historical figures of his era. Much like Mel Gibson’s style in The Passion of the Christ, Till’s instinct in Luther is to be as overtly obvious as is possible; there have been drive-by shootings that had more subtlety than Luther possesses. When the young Luther first visits Rome, he is naturally excited. He is carrying letters to the Pope and, devoted servant to God as he is, is looking forward to seeing the epochs of the Catholic church. Upon entering the gates of Rome, Luther witnesses the following sights within the span of roughly twenty seconds: the pope riding out to go hunting in gold plated armor, a man selling religious idols, a fellow monk being led into a house of ill-repute by a prostitute, the poor paying exorbitant fees to worship in the Catholic church and armed guards prodding the huddled masses to say their prayers more quickly so that more persons can enter the church. As Luther stands atop the church stairs, sickened of the greed and hedonism that he has seen, Till’s camera zooms in on Luther’s left hand as it slowly and angrily crumples the letters he had brought to the pope. If there was any question of Luther’s earlier disgust with papacy–if his quizzical and saddened looks at the clergy members at the brothel two minutes prior didn’t fill you in–Till removes any and all doubt with this shot. Life rarely works in terms of black and white; everything is always some shade of grey. Till and Luther’s two screenwriters, Bart Gavigan and Camille Thomasson, never seem to grasp this concept–this is hardly surprising given the three’s background in made-for-TV movies. Intent on making Luther the most simple and easy to follow film they could, Till, Gavigan and Thomasson left no stone unturned. The result is one of the most offensively obvious films in recent memory. Let me be equally as blunt: do not see Luther. I did and am still regretting the experience.
chris neumer |
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