The latest attempt to put Dietrich Bonhoeffer (DB) on the big screen doesn’t disappoint.
Filmmaker Todd Komarnicki’s version retells the role of the theologian at war.
Komarnicki’s film is a fresh Bonhoeffer take that frees DB from the far left’s image of him as an effeminate saint.
Instead, we get a proper glimpse of Bonhoeffer the man.
Komarnicki’s approach starts with DB being homeschooled.
This introduces the Bonhoeffer family, whose unity in times of adversity is brilliantly used by Komarnicki as the Bonhoeffer’s backbone.
The story then weaves between Bonhoeffer’s past and present.
Komarnicki uses this to piece together the events that brought the pastor to the end of a Nazi noose.
The cast is solid.
Other than German actor Jonas Dassler who portrayed Bonhoeffer, standouts include August Diehl who played Martin Niemoller, and Clarke Peters who took the role of Reverend Powell Sr.
The soundtrack is just as professionally done.
Compositions wrap each scene with solemnity, while a solitary cello draws the audience like gravity, towards a sombre connection with DB’s reality.
The well-placed orchestral bed keeps the dialogue alive.
As do the sound effects that transform seats into bomb-rattled prison cells.
We’re thrilled to share that our version of “The Sound Of Silence” is featured in @AngelStudiosInc’s ‘Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.’ This film is based on the true story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. pic.twitter.com/duWOSE1K3V
— Disturbed (@Disturbed) June 20, 2024
Komarnicki’s audience is met with a recount of real men laying down their lives for others in a quest to save their country.
These are men who rejected Christ-hating cultural laws and refused to replace faith with an ideology, or God with an overbearing government.
So, it’s no wonder the Leftwing establishment hated it.
Dropping fragments from Bonhoeffer’s prison letters, critics panned the film.
Their trigger point was the movie’s key promotional material depicting DB holding a gun.
The usual haters didn’t like the patriotic tone, arguing the theologian was being wrongly portrayed.
According to them, Bonhoeffer was a staunch pacifist who hated nationalism.
This, of course, contrasts with the facts.
Bonhoeffer’s actual view?
Defending Germany against a deified, mass-murdering enemy within, was him loving his neighbour.
I don’t think DB gets any more patriotic or conservative than seeking to preserve what a nation-hating political movement is hell-bent on destroying.
Additionally, on pacifism, he was as equally cautious as C.S Lewis.
Both understood and argued the all-important – irreconcilable – distinction between people-pleasing and being a peace-maker.
From Bonhoeffer’s point of view military service was still acceptable “as long as it didn’t encourage war,” or serve the bloodthirsty inner-tyrant we know as “war fever.” (DBW 12)
As DB’s official biographer Eberhard Bethge explained, Bonhoeffer wasn’t “fanatical about the matter.” (Bonhoeffer, p.431)
DB grew into what was described by Bethge as “conditional pacifism.”
When writing about the war in his prison letters Bonhoeffer predicted the post-war generation would face hardship.
Advising his nephew, Bonhoeffer said,
“We believed we could make our way in life with reason and justice, and when both failed us, we no longer saw any way forward.”(DBW 8 page 388)
“We also overestimated, time and again, the importance of reasonableness and justice in influencing the course of history.”
Those growing up in this war will learn that “this world is ruled by forces against which reason can do nothing.”
Bonhoeffer signed off with Job 7:1, telling his nephew that the post-war generation would have learned to fight this enemy better than his own.
Under this, DB wrote,
“Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war…” (Psalm 144:1-2).
Unfortunately, the film does slide in parts.
There’s way too much time spent covering DB’s culture shock regarding the white-on-black racism of 1930s America.
The storyline lags because this essential topic lacks brevity.
This said. Komarnicki is smart. He brings the balance.
In one significant scene shot at the Lincoln Memorial, Komarnicki inserts the all-important words: “hate comes in all colours.”
Additionally, some historical inaccuracies murky the timeline more than I’d have liked.
Bonhoeffer’s “Religionless Christianity” is out of place, and dangerously over-emphasised.
There is a real sense that Komarnicki has failed to heed Karl Barth’s stern warning on the subject.
“These are,” Barth wrote, “the words of a lonely prisoner.”
They are DB’s private thoughts. They’re incomplete, and “too enigmatic” to build a sound theology.
To do so, Barth cautioned was fraught with danger. (Bethge)
There were also two declarations. Karl Barth’s Barmen Declaration, and Bonhoeffer’s Bethel Confession.
Only the latter is mentioned in the film. This is despite Bonhoeffer being connected to both.
Overall, though, Komarnicki’s Bonhoeffer rises to the challenge.
The film is a Bonhoeffer sermon.
DB’s role in the Confessing Church is boldly represented.
Jesus Christ is exalted over against the state.
Truth is asserted instead of falsehood, and the tremendous cost of doing all three is faithfully reenacted.
The institutional church is scolded for not opposing the demand that, “the Church’s proclamation [preaching/teaching; Gospel & service] must fall into the correct relationship with National Socialism.” (Bethge, p.575)
The parallels between then and now are self-evident.
This is a story that meets the right storyteller.
Komarnicki’s Bonhoeffer recounts the lives of real heroes whose strong commitment to life, light, liberty, and individual responsibility inspires us all.
Angel Studios’ collaboration with Komarnicki is a gutsy retelling of Bonhoeffer’s martyrdom and hits an 8 out of 10.
