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Bonhoeffer

2003, Movie, NR, 90 mins

Bonhoeffer: Review

BONHOEFFER
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A fact-filled if uninspired treatment of a truly inspirational life, this workmanlike film celebrates the courage of German theologian and anti-Nazi hero Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was hanged less than a month before the war's end. After wrestling with the moral implications of killing, Bonhoeffer — who had long been critical of the Nazi party — joined his brother, Klaus, and two brothers-in-law in a conspiracy to assassinate Adolph Hitler. The plot failed and the conspirators were imprisoned and then executed: One of the few German religious leaders who voiced opposition to the Nazi nightmare was finally silenced. The film begins by tracing the roots of Bonhoeffer's short but illustrious career in the devastation of the First World War. Though disillusioned by the German religious establishment which enthusiastically supported German aggression during WWI — a catastrophe that claimed the young life of his older brother, Walter — Bonhoeffer turned to theology as a way of dealing directly with such large-scale devastation. In 1927, Bonhoeffer received his doctorate from the University of Berlin; three years later, he traveled to the U.S. for a teaching fellowship at New York City's Union Theological Seminary. A black friend took Bonhoeffer to Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church, where he witnessed an impassioned and socially relevant Christianity that supported his thesis that Christ is present in the community formed by the church. This conviction helped turn him toward the ecumenical movement upon his return to Germany. In early 1933, the Weimar Republic's precarious democracy collapsed and Hitler was elected chancellor. While the majority of the German Evangelical Church, nervous about their eroding power, supported the Fuhrer, Bonhoeffer openly criticized Hitler in a radio address. And his condemnation wouldn't stop there: Horrified by Nazi militarism and appalled by the treatment of Germany's Jews, Bohoeffer embarked on a mission of conscience that ended with his death. Filled with copious voice-over readings (by Klaus Maria Brandauer) from Bonhoeffer's work, the film balances straightforward biography with theology. But while material is well-researched and informative, the presentation is dry: Historians, theologians and former colleagues (including friend and biographer Eberhard Bethge) offer perspectives on the man and his work, while Bonhoeffer's descendants relate family stories, all in typical talking-head fashion. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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