Starring: Stacy Keach, Patrick Magee, Hugh Griffith, Robert Stephens, Alan Badel Directed By: Guy Green Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: DVD Format: Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Kino Video Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: April 01, 2003 Running Time: 111 minutes Theatrical Release Date: 1973
"Lord, my bowels won't move!" Martin Luther was a passionate, truthful, scary, disturbed and corrupt man--a paradox of an individual if ever one has existed. The Protestant Reformation is one of those defining moments in history which could never happen again if Luther had to go through the considerable torment of being it's vehicle: he was so neurotic, so unstable, so prone to indulging his own emotional whims in the name of God that one meeting with a vocations' director in the Catholic Church would have ended his religious career altogether.
Stacy Keach is one of my favorite actors, and his portrayal of Luther as a man torn by conscience, madness, and an initial ruthless search for authenticity is to my mind the best ever filmed. He exudes the manly nobility that Luther possessed and also the frightful disturbance which was ultimately his downfall. One cannot help but be amused by the early scenes with his Augustinian superior, Johann von Staupitz, played by Maurice Denham with a kind of a quiet irony. During prayer, Keach's Luther breaks out into sweats and constantly begs forgiveness for imaginary sins and both complains and boasts about the his gastrointestinal problems. Cleaning the latrines was a matter of sheer agony for Luther: his mind was dominated by intrusive thoughts, consisting for the most part about feces and doubt about his faith. What a combination!
Fittingly, the entire film is narrated by a peasant who joined the revolts that Luther provoked with his break from the Catholic Church. Never having had any intention of aiding the peasants or joining any kind of revolt against authority, he himself had a number of them slaughtered while they invoked his name against poverty and injustice. Smearing blood on the tortured Luther's cassock, he says: "There. Now you even look like a butcher."
He serves as a kind of reminder that Luther's heroism consisted solely of condemning the practice of indulgences and nailing the 95 tenets to the door of the Catholic Church in Wittenburg. And that's all she wrote, folks: after that he became as bad as the wealthiest, most corrupt member of the Papacy.
Luther's painful relationship with his father is driven home well by the exchanges between Keach and the always fantastic, red-faced Patrick Magee. Expressing his disbelief in transubstantion, he seems less interested in being a skeptic than enraging the young Luther, chastising him for choosing the monastic life when he could have been anything else--something that would have made the family lots of money.
Luther was a zealot: and like all zealots, he could be particularly cruel when he wanted to be. At the end of the film, when the narrator/peasant wheels in the corpse of a peasant killed in his name, Keach's facial expression turns to stone and he instructs the peasant to take him out of his newfound "House of God". Instead of consummating his original strain of thought and relegating Christ to the soul of each man without a mediator, he simply founded a new religion which on whose throne he sat. (Uncomfortably, I imagine.)
Fortunately for Protestant viewers, John Osborne elected not to include Luther's raging anti-semitism, a lot of which would later be recycled for the arrival of the Third Reich.
An accurate and moving portrait of a tragic figure.
Luther with Stacy Keach I was excited to get this video, as I am a long time fan of both Osborne and Keach...I must say, however, that I was somewhat disappointed in the movie as a whole...Overall, I found the pace pedantic, and the premise off base historically....The more recent Luther with Finnes is by far a better overall production....The 1950's production, is perhaps the best overall portrayal of Luther to this date...All in all, I would not recommend this movie...It is a poor rendition of a stage play, which, by the way, is a mesmorizing experience...
Martin Luther Martin luther single handedly has put conscience over authority and his conscience over the bible too. this man called the book of James a book made out of straw. his anti-semetic attitude towards us jews is deplorable and appalling. he told the germans of his time to burn synagogues, the talmud, and drive us jews out of germany if possible even murderous death to get rid of us jews. It was because of Martin luther that the Nazis caused Krystalnacht right before and on his brithday. His anti-catholic and anti-jewish rheotric sparked violent persecution among the people of his time. And Martin Luther gave rise to the Nazis that came later on in germany's future. Like that peasant said in this film and he is right Martin Luther is a murderer. Martin even told the catholic princes of deutschland to stop the peasant revolt by any means necessary. martin luther was mentally ill having these fits that he had. plus he was no role model christian. anyone who disagreed with his brand of christianity and did not convert to it like us jews he would speak all kinds of profanity and condemnation. Stacy Keach does a great job of showing martin's anger problem and his raving language of crude words about pope and anything catholic. you do not see his crude words about us jews in this film. martin luther was anti-semetic. this film does not show that but it is the truth.
Luther LUTHER is the first American Film Theater (AFT) movie I've seen, and, according to the extras on this disk - especially a twenty minute interview with one of the producers - it's pretty representative of the dozen or so films put out in its two years of existence.
Stacy Keach plays the 16th century German monk turn church reformer in the 1973 big-screen adaptation of playwright John Osborne's LUTHER. The play follows the career of Luther from troubled novitiate to a questioning and critical priest to a somewhat settled old age. Osborne's LUTHER is a character study rather than a hard-edged chronicle of great events. That's not to say that LUTHER ignores totally the swirl of history surrounding the title character. Indeed, the play includes indulgence-selling priests and a diet in Worms met to insist that he, Luther, recant of his heresies. They're here in service of history and, more immediately, to provide the cause for Luther's rebellion.
And there's the rub. There's an intimacy to LUTHER that I'm sure works better on my five-inch Philco than it did on the big screen. Just as I'm sure it worked much better on the live stage. Although in a contemporary (2002) videotaped interview Edie Landau argues convincingly the merits of making movies out of stage plays, the results are mixed. The wife and business partner of the American Film Theatre founder Ely Landau, Edie Landau's 26-minute videotaped interview is a fascinating look behind the scenes of the AFT and the novel `subscription' concept that allowed them to film almost a dozen plays in its two-year existence. For all the highbrow appeal of an examination of the inner Luther, and even the strong performances by the cast, especially Keach, film demands action, while live theater rewards introspection. LUTHER is interesting, although not terribly involving. Paradoxically, although I haven't much desire to watch the movie again I would be the first in line if LUTHER is ever revived as a live stage play,
Luther, the man, his demons, and his reawakening I remember seeing this movie in the local movie house and really enjoying it. Stacy Keach does an excellent job as Martin Luther as tortured soul and spiritual leader. When I first saw this film of the play, LUTHER, I enjoyed it because I love history. When I watched it about 5 years ago, as a practicing Roman Catholic, on VHS it made me appreciate and understand Luther, the man. And while I may not agree with Luther's theology, I am sympathetic to his search and understanding of God's grace. I especially like the way this film develops the relationship between Luther and his mentor, Fr. Johan Von Staupitz, who, by the way, never became a follower of Luther, remained in the Roman Catholic Church, and as a result was sent into a type of house exile by the Church, because of his relationship with the reformer.
If you like good acting, history, and a good story you will enjoy Luther.
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