Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy, Assassin A Review

Movies are not academic documentaries; they are storytelling and drama. Filmmakers must always take some license to fit a complex story into two hours. Making a movie about a revered historical religious figure is a daunting challenge; someone will always be unhappy with the way you tell the story of their favorite religious leader.

I say this because I’ve done it; for my 2009 movie Wesley we struggled to compress just a few years of John Wesley’s complex story into two hours. Many lauded the film, others hated it – often scholars who complained that their favorite hobby horse had been overlooked. So I approach reviewing Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy, Assassin with some caution, particularly because I have strong opinions about Bonhoeffer, whom I studied extensively in seminary.

Recently, a large group of scholars and the descendants of the Bonhoeffer family publicly decried the misuse of Bonhoeffer’s name and thought to support Christian Nationalism (links at end of article). They condemned Eric Metaxas’ book and the new movie – though unfortunately none of them had been able to preview the movie at that time.

I went to see Bonhoeffer at a preview just before the official wide release.  I felt that I had to see the movie for myself before passing any judgment. First, let me address Bonhoeffer just as a movie; then I will look at where Todd Komarnicki (writer and director) fails to capture the complex subject of his film.

The movie is actually pretty well done, especially when compared to the normal “faith film” of the past. Production values are excellent, the acting is generally quite good, and the direction is mostly good. Jonas Dassler (Dietrich Bonhoeffer) is compelling in many scenes, though there are places where the acting and the writing seem clichéd. The film uses a “flashback” structure (from Bonhoeffer in prison) to collapse the time, but in online reviews many people found this confusing – some because they didn’t know the story, and others because they did know the story and were confused by liberties taken.

Historically, the script is pretty accurate for a film of this nature – but that’s quite a low standard! Komarnicki takes many historical liberties that were not needed for condensing the story. The film does show Bonhoeffer’s time at Union Seminary in New York and his friendships in Harlem at the Abyssinian Baptist Church. This is mostly fictionalized, however, and while it shows his exposure to American racism, it falls short in conveying the strong prophetic pacifist resistance to racism that Bonhoeffer witnessed, which was a huge shaping influence on his theology.

So here’s where the film goes astray: Bonhoeffer was a profound pacifist, and I have the feeling that (like many people), Komarnicki doesn’t adequately understand pacifism. Bonhoeffer had been in touch with Mahatma Gandhi in the early 1930s, and learned more from the saints at Abbysinian Baptist Church (MLK didn’t invent peaceful resistance). Like Gandhi, Bonhoeffer believed “There are many causes that I am prepared to die for, but no causes that I am prepared to kill for.” In the movie, Bonhoeffer seems to abandon that position, and the complex, carefully thought out theology he had espoused and participates enthusiastically in the plot to kill Hitler. Miles Werntz writes in Christianity Today,

“Rather than depicting a man of deep theological convictions and subtle intellect, Bonhoeffer tells the story of a man for whom moral convictions are a flexible and useful tool, a man whose actions are determined not by concerns for the church’s witness but by perceived historical necessity. It is the story of a Bonhoeffer willing to do anything—including disavow the teachings of Jesus as he understood them—to assassinate Adolf Hitler.”

Victoria Barnett, the editor of Bonhoeffer’s collected works, describes the movie “as a very romanticized ‘Christian hero’ fantasy.”

“[Bonhoeffer’s] legacy is actually a very critical one of the failures of his church in Christianity. How would we read him if we were not looking for a hero story, but reading him for insight and guidance into how to be a good person in this world? It’s a fantasy. They’ve made lots of things up to actually contradict who he was and what he did.”

But – didn’t Dietrich Bonhoeffer actively participate in the plot to kill Hitler? That’s the popular view. His brother-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi certainly did. However, scholars today point out that there is no evidence that Dietrich actually helped or actively participated in the plot. He probably knew about it, but even that is speculation. He was active in the resistance in many forms, but he certainly did not abandon his theology, as he seems to in the movie. Bonhoeffer’s own actions of Christian resistance—spreading information to international contacts, and assisting with sending Jews to Switzerland—were consistent with his long-standing convictions. Instead, he confirmed his continued belief in pacifism in letters from prison. His theology had not changed.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy, Assassin does not seem to directly promote Christian nationalism (as some feared), and does indeed get many things right. However, it fails to hit the mark in significant ways, in particular understanding how profound Bonhoeffer’s bravery was. Like Jan Hus, he stood publicly and courageously against the might of empire, knowing that he would likely pay the ultimate price. He proclaimed truth in the face of fascism. Miles Werntz, writing in Christianity Today, concludes:

“What we needed was a film about a man concerned with how God might be calling the church to be steadfast amid the great temptation to mold our faith to our politics.”

Warren Throckmorton voices a slightly different perspective:

“It is good that the movie is triggering discussion about how to respond to a totalitarian regime. We are now living in the shadow of that possibility. This is new ground for American Christians and we need to deal with it.”

Incidentally, the real Bonhoeffer had connections to the Moravian Church – his mother, Paula von Haase Bonhoeffer, spent time learning in Herrnhut as a young woman, and his governess, Maria Horn, was a Moravian. He grew up using the Moravian Daily Text (Die Losungen) and continued to meditate on the Die Losungen daily until his imprisonment.

I would encourage church groups to see the movie, but to be forearmed with solid information and an awareness of the inaccuracies — and use it as a springboard for conversation on the very difficult issues. I can see some very fruitful discussions happening.

I would also encourage Christians to read Bonhoeffer’s actual writings rather than third-party interpretations. In our time, the Church needs to wrestle with his profound thought in a significant way. 

Links:
Recommended Reading:
Recommended Viewing:

You may also like