Torchlighters: The Martin Luther Story

The story of the German theologian and monk who became a key figure in the Protestant Reformation of the early 16th-century is told in this animated film from the acclaimed Torchlighters series. Martin Luther's life was full of drama, as he engaged in an escalating war of words with the Church of Rome and Pope Leo X, while also stirring up ordinary Germans who were tired of being frightened by warnings of purgatorial suffering (and swindled with offers to buy indulgences). Luther dangerously refused to retract his allegedly heretical writings, which placed both his freedom and life in jeopardy. Presented as a brawny, square-jawed hero (not quite matching the softer images of him in paintings), this Luther is an expansive teacher, confident intellectual, and persistent advocate of a decentralized Christianity in which sinners are given to understand that redemption comes from God's love, not papal power. Luther is no firebrand superhero: he looks grim and burdened while famously nailing his “Ninety-Five Theses” to the door of a church, and when blindsided by an extreme threat if he fails to denounce his voluminous and popular writings at odds with Rome, he appears vulnerable and frightened. In other words, while this is a cartoon biography, Luther is not a two-dimensional character, but rather a deeply committed human figure. Recommended. Aud: P. (T. Keogh)