PG-13 | 2h 12m | Drama, Biography, History | 2024
In just over two years, the upstart Angel Studios accomplished what the like-minded Hallmark Media couldn’t do in nearly 75 years. Angel took an overlooked and often derided genre (faith and family) that was strictly relegated to home video and broke into the highly competitive theatrical feature market.
With “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” (“Bonhoeffer”), Angel continues to expand its reach beyond faith-based films with another uplifting and inspirational real-life biography. Although faith is a large component of the film, it is espionage (as the somewhat clunky full title lets on) that makes up the bulk of the narrative.
Born in the German kingdom of Prussia in 1906, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Jonas Dassler) was the sixth of eight children of Karl (Moritz Bleibtreu) and Paula (Nadine Heidenreich) Bonhoeffer. He was a happy and precocious child whose attitude greatly shifted after the death of his eldest brother, Walter, in World War I.
The Death of a Brother
Walter’s last wish was for Paula to will Dietrich his Bible, which had the “good parts” underlined. From that point forward, Bonhoeffer dedicated his life to God, eventually becoming a pastor. In 1930, he attended Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where a colleague exposed him to American jazz and gospel music; at one point, he played piano onstage with Louis Armstrong.
It was during this sojourn that Bonhoeffer crossed paths with and was influenced by the Harlem-based Reverend Adam Clayton Powell Sr. (Clarke Peters). In one of the film’s most memorable passages, Powell deftly explains to Bonhoeffer the difference between one’s faith in God and belief in organized religion.
Erasing Christianity
Niemöller’s opposition to the Nazis wasn’t so much because of the targeting of Jews, which Bonhoeffer also decried. It was more because the Third Reich took control of all German churches and replaced holy imagery with black and red swastikas, and Bibles with 12 Commandments. In addition to the original 10 was one that described Jesus Christ as an Aryan and another that declared Hitler the supreme deity. Along with Niemöller and a few others, Bonhoeffer co-founded the modern anti-fascist Confessing Church that vehemently opposed the Nazi regime.By this point, Bonhoeffer had become a marked man. His association with the German counterintelligence agency “Abwehr” and British spy operatives only made him more of a target. Bonhoeffer pretended to support the regime. The Nazis saw right through his sudden Nazi “support” switch. The ruse was over.
Bonhoeffer’s working with multiple known anti-Nazi forces led to him being identified as a potential accomplice to a possible Hitler assassination, which isn’t entirely untrue. Bonhoeffer was now of a mind that ridding the world of Hitler surpassed all other concerns, including his own moral and spiritual beliefs.
What if you had the chance to kill or aid in the killing of Hitler after it was clear that he’d already started genocide and world domination on a mass scale? Some would say no, but many people would say yes. But what if you were a priest, a pastor, or some other religious person of the cloth? What would you do?
‘Schindler’s List’
In just his second effort as a director and writer, Todd Komarnicki (“Resistance,” 2003) takes on a mammoth task that most seasoned filmmakers wouldn’t dare to attempt, and he largely succeeds. He’s aided in this venture because most people with secular leanings have never heard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. To a degree, the same can be said about the title character in “Schindler’s List.”Bonhoeffer and Oskar Schindler were both Christians and native Germans. Schindler was a member of the Nazi Party and an unapologetic capitalist who greatly profited from World War II. Both men had nothing to gain and everything to lose by going against the Nazi grain, yet both did so because of their underlying moral fiber.
My sole issue with “Bonhoeffer” was Komarnicki’s choice to present the narrative out of sequence. The story jumps from 1914 to 1945, then to 1918 to 1930 throughout the film. This certainly doesn’t help and sometimes hurts making the desired point. Bonhoeffer’s landing in a Nazi prison camp within the first 15 minutes removes a strong element of suspense; we already know where he’s headed. In my opinion, presenting Bonhoeffer’s story in chronological order would have resulted in a better movie.
That said, “Bonhoeffer” is still a towering achievement. It’s a movie that gives the majority of audiences yet another view of WWII they likely never had before. The film goes further in cementing the fact that Adolf Hitler is the most vile and loathsome person in the history of humanity.
