Martin Luther is a 1953 film biography of Martin Luther. It was directed by Irving Pichel, (who also plays a supporting role), and stars Niall MacGinnis as Luther. It was produced by Louis de Rochemont and RD-DR Corporation in collaboration with Lutheran Church Productions and Luther-Film-G.M.B.H.
The National Board of Review named the film the fourth best of 1953. It was nominated for two Academy Awards, for Best Cinematography (Black-and-White) and Art Direction/Set Decoration (Fritz Maurischat, Paul Markwitz). The music was composed by Mark Lothar and performed by the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. It was filmed in studios in Wiesbaden, West Germany.
A notice at the beginning of the film characterizes it as a careful and balanced presentation of Luther's story: "This dramatization of a decisive moment in human history is the result of careful research of facts and conditions in the 16th century as reported by historians of many faiths." The research was done by notable Reformation scholars Theodore G. Tappert and Jaroslav Pelikan who assisted Allan Sloane and Lothar Wolff.
Plot
Biography of Martin Luther, the 16th-century priest who led the Christian Reformation and opened up new possibilities in exploration of faith. The film begins with his vow to become a monk, and continues through his struggles to reconcile his desire for sanctification with his increasing abhorrence of the corruption and hypocrisy pervading the Church's hierarchy. He is ultimately charged with heresy and must confront the ruling cardinals and princes, urging them to make the Scriptures available to the common believer and lead the Church toward faith through justice and righteousness.
Keywords: 1500s, 1510s, 1520s, 1530s, 16th-century, 95-theses, apostle, augsburg-germany, battle, beekeeping
Rebel. Genius. Liberator.
Martin Luther: That day when you sent me out so boldly to change the world, did you really think there wouldn't be a cost?
Georg Spalatin: Do not bite the hand that feeds you, Martin. Our prince pays for your chair in this university. His relics pay for your chair.::Martin Luther: And he who pays the piper calls the tune.
Frederick the Wise: It's so irritating. Who are they to deprive my university of such a fine mind?
Martin Luther: To go against conscience is neither right nor safe. I cannot, and I will not recant. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me.
Martin Luther: Unless I am convinced by Scripture and by plain reason and not by Popes and councils who have so often contradicted themselves, my conscience is captive to the word of God. To go against conscience is neither right nor safe. I cannot and I will not recant. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me.
Johann Tetzel: Good people of Juterbog, have you ever burned your hand in the fire? Even one finger made raw by the flame will torment you throughout the night. Is it not so?::[Holds his hand over a fire until it is burned]::Johann Tetzel: Imagine then, your entire body burning. Not for one sleepless night, not for a week, but for all eternity! Are we to be spared the fires of damnation on the Judgment Day?::[Unfurls paintings of sinners burning in the fires of Hell]::Johann Tetzel: Tonight, your Pope, the vicar of Christ, sends you a gift, a gift to save you from such fires, a special indulgence, granted for the building of Saint Peter's Church in Rome, where the bones of the apostles lie moldering, exposed to wind and rain, desecrated by wild animals. Take heed the words of your Holy Father who says, "Lay a stone for Saint Peters and you lay the foundation for your own salvation and happiness in heaven." How? With this indulgence. When? Tonight, and only tonight. Seek the Lord while he is near. Here is your raft! Take hold!
Martin Luther: The Fourth Lateran Council ruled that salvation could exist outside the church, though not outside Christ.
Professor Andreas Karlstadt: Feed the fire with every lie ever written in Rome!
Martin Luther: I cannot renounce all of my works because they are not all the same.First are those books in which if I have described Christian faith and life so simply that even my opponents have admitted that these books are useful. To renounce these writings would be unthinkable for that would be to renounce accepted Christian truths... The second group of my work is directed aginst the foul doctrine and evil living of the Popes, past and present... Through the laws of the Pope and the doctrines of men, the consciences of the faithful have been miserably vexed and flayed. If I recant these books, I will do nothing but add strength to tyranny and open not just the windows but also the doors to this great ungodliness... In the third group I have written against private persons and individuals who uphold Roman tyranny and have attacked my own efforts to encourage piety to Christ. I confess that I have written too harshly. I am but a man and I can err. Only let my errors be proven by Scripture and I will revoke my work and throw my books into the fire.
Martin Luther: So when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: "I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also!"
Plot
A precise, real-time (exactly 85 minutes - the length of the actual event) reenactment of the infamous Wannsee Conference, a meeting called in January, 1942 to map out the implementation of the Final Solution to the Jewish Question.
Keywords: ammunition, annihilation, anti-semitism, asphyxiation, barbarism, berlin-germany, bolshevik, bureaucracy, bureaucrat, camouflage
Adolf Eichmann: There were women... children...::Reinhard Heydrich: Women and children are Jews too.
Reinhard Heydrich: It's dishonorable to be weaklings, which we in the SS are not.
In 1525 the world was rocked by a powerful explosion. His name was Luther.
Plot
It's medieval times. Kohlhaas merchants with horses. When going to the local fair to sell his horses, is forced by a noble to leave him part of the merchandise as payment for traveling through his land, promising to give it back when the fair is over. When he returns, the horses are almost dead, and the man refuse to respond, so Kohlhass begins to fight unsuccesfuly against the injustice
Keywords: based-on-novel, character-name-in-title, death-of-loved-one, death-of-wife, horse-ranch, justice, one-man-crusade, rebel, reference-to-martin-luther, revenge
The Man Who Changed the World - FOREVER!