Feature film has done more than any other medium to shape the image of
Martin Luther held by the common public in the 20th century. Luther
films have always - apart from the very earliest - been ambitious
undertakings, staffed by personnel that include leading representatives
of theology and expert consultants in ecclesiastical history.
Nonetheless, the Luther film has been largely bypassed by traditional
Luther scholarship. The status of the historic figure as a national myth
in Germany and a Church founder in America required a cinematic concept
that was closely linked with theological issues as well as the
self-image of the Lutheran Church. The present study is chiefly
concerned with working out the interests brought to bear on each film
project by its initiators and the impact each has made on the image of
Luther in film in its historical context. There is no other medium that
allows for a clearer reading of the history of the change in the
Lutheran mindset during the past century than in film. This mass medium
shows how scholarship, whether in respect to psychology or the
interpretation of the Reformation as a media reformation, was
popularized. Moreover, the film fairly consistently sticks to the
positive image of the hero. Whereas the view of Luther in German films
increasingly emphasized the nationalist element until 1927, since 1953
the Anglo-American tradition has placed the emphasis on the element of
liberation from conventional thinking, and from the authorities of the
Middle Ages as well as on new beginnings. That was the image that became
the basis for all later filmic representation. Therefore it is
legitimate to speak of an Americanization of Luther in film. Some main
aspects of Luther's image can be seen in both the European and the
American traditions. Moreover, viewer response to the Luther film has
shown itself to be an indicator of the degree of secularisation in a
society. It also shows whether and if so, how strongly, links to a
particular religious affiliation are perceived at a given time.
