Bonhoeffer
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Eberhard Bethge, Geffrey Kelly, John De Gruchy, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Richard ManciniBrand: First RUN Features
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); German (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-04-20
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: First Run Features
Movie Reviews of Bonhoeffer
Movie Review: A wonderful documentary about one of the truly great souls of the twentieth century
Summary: 5 Stars
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of the religious figures who have most influenced my own spiritual journey. His books are unique among serious theologians in that he never forgets at any point that his subjects are never abstract doctrinal issues, but practical issues of the greatest moment. There is a great line in Kierkegaard, in the preface to THE SICKNESS UNTO DEATH, where he writes: "Everything essentially Christian must have in its presentation a resemblance to the way a physician speaks at the sickbed; even if only medical experts understand it, it must never be forgotten that the situation is the bedside of a sick person." What gives his books so much power is the context in which he wrote them, as he struggled to live out the implications of Christianity at a time when it was especially challenging to do so.
Bonhoeffer was in so many ways a paradox and the documentary does a great job of showing this. Raised in a secular home, he inexplicably decided to become a theologian and pastor. At a time when a host of right wing movements were overtaking Germany, he espoused left wing political and social values. In an age of growing intolerance, he expressed a sympathy and understanding of both Jews and blacks almost unprecedented in the Germany of his time. And in an age when many theologians wrote academic works with little regard to how they should connect with real life, Bonhoeffer was obsessed with the connections between thought and practice.
What is most impressive in studying the life of Bonhoeffer, whether through reading his books or Eberhard Bethge's great biography or watching this documentary is the man's fundamental goodness and dedication to doing what is right. If he had been catholic instead of protestant, he would surely by now have been declared a saint. He seems to have had the saint's calmness and peacefulness. One is certain that he slept the sleep of the just.
Bonhoeffer was one of the most promising young theologians in Weimar Germany. Had he lived in more peaceful times he certainly would have written a host of first-rate theological works. Like his theological mentor, the great Karl Barth, who was himself the greatest theologian between Luther and Calvin and the present, he would have written works that explored the concrete role that religion must play in every day life. When Hitler rose to power, Bonhoeffer could easily have fled to the United States and taught through the course of the conflict and in fact had an appointment at Union Theological Seminary in New York, which he left to return to Germany. Moreover, he joined the resistance against Hitler and came to believe that it was his moral and religious duty to aid in the attempt to assassinate him. After an attempt to kill Hitler through the use of an air pressure bomb placed on a plane failed (for whatever reason it did not detonate as it should have), a host of suspected conspirators were arrested, including Bonhoeffer. He spent the rest of his life in a Nazi prison, dying at the hands of the Nazis only a few days before the American armies liberated the concentration camp to which he was transferred near the end.
If one reads his ETHICS one is impressed by sections such as the one on what it means to tell the truth. Kant had famously argued that if a man that one suspects is angry enough to kill a particular person comes up and asks you where that person is, the moral law demands that you not lie to the would-be murderer (though in Kant's defense it isn't clear that we are obligated to tell him where the intended victim is, but merely that we not lie). For Bonhoeffer the situation is so much more complex. He knew about many facets of the conspiracy and merely refusing to answer the Gestapo's questions would have done much to confirm the existence of the conspiracy. Bonhoeffer was forced to systematically fabricate a tissue of lies that would mislead the Nazis as much as he could while protecting as many people as he could. This lends a sense of poignancy to his writing on what it means to tell the truth that is almost unbearable. Reading between the lines, one realizes that Bonhoeffer realized, contra Kant, that "telling the truth" might actually entail lying to the best of one's abilities.
I had only one tiny complaint with the documentary. I love Klaus Maria Brandauer as an actor. He is a powerful and subtle performer, but his voice on the DVD is very hard to understand. I don't know if his accent is too thick or if the recording has too much bass to be clear. I found I could understand only a portion of what he was saying.
Anyone who is moved by this documentary should certainly look further into Bonhoeffer's life and thought. I once was privileged to be part of a group of thirty or so students who had a long conversation with Eberhard Bethge about Bonhoeffer. Bethge features prominently in the film. There is no question that if you were to read only one book on Bonhoeffer, his magisterial biography is the place to go. It is massive, but it is unquestionably worth the effort. I love Bonhoeffer's ETHICS, but it might be a tad too academic for the lay reader. THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP, in which he makes his famous distinction between cheap grace and costly grace, is a wonderful book and can easily be read by someone without a strong theological background. LETTERS AND PAPERS FROM PRISON, which collects things written from the time of his arrest to the end of his life, is justly celebrated as a classic religious work. A TESTAMENT TO FREEDOM: THE ESSENTIAL WRITINGS OF DIETRICH BONHOEFFER is a very fine anthology that collects writings from every period of his life.
I recommend this film as strongly as possible. To me Bonhoeffer is one of the truly great Christian heroes of the past century, though his courage and sacrifice offers equal inspiration to non-Christians as well.
Summary of Bonhoeffer
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