A bland take on such a faithful figure.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, neo-orthodox theologian, and anti-Nazi man, whose faith kept his spirits alive. Throughout the 39 years of his life, he has written books (including “The Cost of Discipleship”), traveled to America and learned about its qualities and difficulties at the time in the 1930s, and even was accused of being part of the assassination of Adolf Hitler, known as the 20 July plot. And that’s why he was hanged in 1945.
I’m of German decent and my religion is Lutheran, so “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” could be an interesting film on a man gambling his life on faith and how he intends to use it to try to help make the world a better place. But the overall experience is uneven and seems to take the easy movie way out of things. We know it will have a tragic ending, but a great influence on people regarding his messages and what he has learned. But the narrative treats the subject matter in a blandish way.
During his stay in America, Dietrich (Jonas Dassler) learns a few life lessons at the time period. One being that his classmate and good friend is an African American man named Frank (David Jonsson, just seen in “Alien: Romulus”), who has to deal with racism. And another is when he learns about the true power of God from Reverend Powell, Sr. (portrayed here as an African American man played by Clarke Peters), and intends to spread the message about him just as Germany is preparing to follow under Adolf Hitler’s regime.
We also see him as a spy, a teacher, and an assassin in the plot to take out Hitler, but these subplots just come and go.
We also get a silly childhood sequence regarding young Dietrich pretending he’s invisible while being playfully chased by his older brother Walter (Patrick Molleken). His mother (Nadine Heidenreich) gives him strawberries to help. And then the magic goes away when Walter gets killed during WWI.
We also see him getting arrested by the Gestapo, and even at the Flossenburg concentration camp where he was transferred, he still has his optimism and spirits. Not even those Nazis could take that away from him.
“Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” was written and directed by Todd Komarnicki, who also directed a low rent unknown film called “Resistance,” and is best known for producing “Elf” and “Sully.” It would make sense that Angel Studios distributes this film, because of how the movie represents Bonhoeffer’s faith and theology, and it’s quite committed to those elements. And among the studio’s releases, I did enjoy “Cabrini” and “Sight” for the performances and humanity within them.
Dassler does some good work portraying this particular man, and he tries to carry the film with the right influences. But the story doesn’t elevate on that, and even with its 132 minute time length, it’s either not enough to explore his life or we have to get some unnecessary content. I think it’s not enough.
I just found out that in the German weekly Die Zeit, Bonhoeffer experts accused the film of abusing the man’s life in order to promote Christian Nationalism. And they aren’t fans of the poster’s tagline “How far will you go to stand up for what’s right?.” I’ve never heard of this religious figure until recently, so I can’t really compare and contrast things completely. I’m not a person who thinks things on a deeper level, and I’m no expert on every person. So don’t bother asking me about these kinds of things, because even I still have my thinking and questions about life.
What you can ask me is what I thought about “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” It’s well-intended, but uneven film adaptation.