“Bonhoeffer” is a new war movie that surprisingly played at a theater nearby. Usually, small war movies do not appear in theaters in my area, so I was perplexed, but pleased. As soon as the credits rolled, I knew why the movie was playing nearby. The movie was made by Angel Studios and it was approved by the Angel Guild. Angel Studios has built a reputation for producing movies with Christian themes. It released “Sound of Freedom” and the tv series “The Chosen”. Since I never read anything about upcoming war movies, this was my first clue that the movie was going to a heavy dose of preaching. It was directed and written by Todd Komarnicki (“Resistance”). It has been controversial.
The opening occurs in 1914. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is from a big family. He has an idyllic childhood based on that one scene. The movie jumps to 1945 and Dietrich is on a bus full of concentration camp inmates. Then its back to 1915 and Dietrich’s older brother has been drafted by the German army. He won’t be coming back. He leaves Dietrich a Bible with “all the good parts underlined”. The movie is nonlinear with flashbacks to events in his life that lead to his incarceration. Dietrich has taken a path to a religious service. He spends some time at a seminary in New York where he is befriended by a black man. He experiences the racism, but also is exposed to jazz. He returns to Germany around the time that Hitler and the Nazis are taking power. His family discusses this at the dinner table and their conversation mirrors the two views on the subject. Some believe Hitler will never take power and others say that he will, but there is nothing to worry about. He doesn’t mean all those things he says. There is a different debate within the German Lutheran church. Dietrich and others think the church should distance itself from Nazi doctrines like anti-semitism. Others see Hitler as a disciple of Christ who will increase the power of the church. His first sermon takes the theme that Jesus hated religion. He criticizes the church for getting in bed with the Nazis. Priests and uniformed Nazis walk out. Unfortunately, he is in the minority. The church removes crucifixes, statues, and the Old Testament. It is replaced by “Mein Kampf”. His Sunday school pupils are now in the Hitler Youth. He becomes a dissident. One of his famous proclamations was “silence in the face of evil is evil.” He secretly trains seminarians. He then is recruited by his brother-in-law to join the Abwehr. The Abwehr was an intelligence department that had antil—Hitler members. They attempt to assassinate Hitler. His participation leads to his arrest.
“Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy, Assassin” has a title that appears to be only 1/3 correct. There is little in the movie about him (Jonas Dassler) spying and although he knew about the assassination attempt portrayed in the movie, he is not an active participant. The movie is mainly about his ministry. He was very brave for vocally opposing Nazism and criticizing the church hierarchy. The plot makes it seem that he was left alone by the authorities until he was arrested (off screen). He certainly was inflammatory and yet there seemed to be little consequences. At one point, he watches a clandestine movie showing a concentration camp. But this is the only thing that reminds us of how evil the Nazis are. The film is not so much anti-Nazi as it is pro-Christian. It is also anti-racism. The scenes in America boost this theme. It seems an attempt to tie the movie to America for box office purposes.
Critics of the movie claim that it is propaganda for Christian nationalism in America. I did not get that impression. In fact, in two scenes pastors criticize the church’s collaboration with the Nazis. It could be argued that the film is equating evangelism in America with politicians who have fascist leanings. I do not think Bonhoeffer would be pleased with the trend in America today.
The movie is not as cringe as a nonreligious viewer might expect. Almost every scene has a religious vibe. Much of the dialogue is religious. There are several hymns in it. Since Bonhoeffer was a noted theologist, his dialogue does not seem forced. The “pastor” in the title is well-earned. That dialogue comes from an actor who does a decent job channeling Bonhoeffer’s charismatic proselytizing.
Since it is a biopic, there were scenes that stretched credulity. The type of scenes that make my trip to Wikipedia interesting. For example, after Dietrich joins the Abwehr (which seems hard to believe because he was a known anti-Nazi), he and his brother-in-law are tasked with bringing some Jewish prisoners to Switzerland where they will testify that the Jewish people were not being mistreated. The two men are not accompanied by anyone. When they reach the border, they set the Jews free! There is no punishment for this. As I watched the movie I couldn’t help but wonder why this guy is not being arrested. He does not hide his identity when he speaks out against Nazi control of the Lutheran church. Heck, I expected one of the bishops to beg the Gestapo to arrest him. The film has no evil Nazi who is tracking Bonheoffer. In fact, the only Nazi character who interacts with him is a guard who is converted.
The nonlinear structure causes some awkwardness for history buffs. At first, the film uses title cards, but then abandons them as Bonhoeffer hops around. Sometimes the dialogue references events that have not occurred at the time of the scene. For instance, being “sent to the Eastern Front” is threatened in a scene that had to be before the invasion of Russia. In another scene, Bonhoeffer goes to England to get a bomb for another assassination attempt, but Churchill turns him down because he does not want British fingerprints on a bomb because it might cause Hitler to invade. This is laughable.
How accurate is it? Bonhoeffer was the son of a father who was a psychiatrist and a neurologist. His mother was a teacher whose father was a theologian. Dietrich was well-educated and learned to play the piano at age 8. His brother was killed in WWI. Dietrich got a doctorate in theology. He went to America to teach at an American seminary. That is where he developed an abhorrence of racial injustice. He did have a black friend named Frank Fisher and he did spend time at the Abyssinian Baptist Church and taught Sunday school there. The movie “All Quiet on the Western Front” turned him against Christian nationalism and made him a pacifist. (The movie has been criticized by Christians for showing him favoring the murder of Hitler. Thou shalt not kill.) The film does not do a good job in explaining Bonhoeffer’s journey. The Lutheran church did support Nazism and it removed non-Aryans from its clergy and the Old Testament from its dogma. Martin Niemoller (August Diehl) did break from the church and formed the Confessing Church. In 1937, Bonhoeffer published a book entitled “The Cost of Discipleship”. (The movie barely mentions him being an influential author.) The next two years he roamed Germany as a visiting theologian. In 1939, he moved to the U.S. because he was a wanted man, but he returned after just two weeks. (The movie places this as right before the assassination.) The assassination is the one by Rudolf-Christoph von Gersdorff. The movie does a good job reenacting this (although the Hitler actor is terrible and he was not alone. He was accompanied by several of his henchmen, including Goering). Hitler rushed through the exhibit in much less than Gersdorff’s ten minute timer. Gersdorff did defuse the bomb in the bathroom. Bonhoeffer’s brother-in-law was in the Abwehr and he did recruit Dietrich, as hard as this is to believe. The Abwehr was a haven for anti-Nazis. Dietrich did help with Jewish escapes (Operation 7), but not in the way the movie depicts. The movie does not show his work as a courier for the German resistance which he did when he was supposed to be spying on churches. In 1943, he was arrested for conspiring to rescue Jews and using his travels for non-intelligence activities. Bonhoeffer did convert some guards in prison. After all his provocative comments, he probably would have survived the war, but when Hitler found out the contents of Abwehr head Admiral William Canaris’ diary, he ordered anyone connected with him to be executed. He was executed by hanging in April, 1945. So, the movie is pretty accurate. That balances the overt religiousity of the film.
“Bonheoffer: Pastor, Spy, Assassin” is an average biopic of a man who deserved cinematic fame, although the opening statement by the director that he was one of he biggest heroes of the war is a bit exaggerated. The nonlinear structure is a bit clunky and it is not a movie that many atheists will enjoy. However, Bonhoeffer’s preachings can resonate with anyone who believes that humanity and the soul of the individual trumps political ideology. And the belief that one must speak out against injustice even if you are not personally affected by it. “When they came for the Jews, I did not speak out, because I am not a Jew….”
GRADE = C
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