The story being told in the film is not Bonhoeffer’s story. It’s not the Confession Church’s story. Nor is it the story of the German resistance against Hitler. It is a completely fictional story of Hollywood.
It was with both excitement and some trepidation that I brought my family to the theatre on Black Friday to see Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy Assassin. I was excited because the story and the theological works of Bonhoeffer have influenced my own formation as both a pastor and a Christian. To be sure, I have a very strong skepticism of any treatment of theological subjects done by Hollywood, and this skepticism was on high alert as we entered the cinema. Yet, at the same time, I reminded myself that movies can tell true stories of church history extremely well. A good example is the 2003 film Luther, which was mostly historical and theological accurate with a minimum of fictional embellishment.
Unfortunately, the same really cannot be said of the film, Bonhoeffer. Fictional plot, suspense, cinematography, and special effects all receive A+ levels. But, as far as historical accuracy is concerned, the film gets a score of an F+ or D- at best. The costumes are extremely correct for the 1930s and 40s. Indeed, the degree of accuracy of the many iterations and varieties of Nazi uniforms in the film exceeds even the precision of the Indiana Jones franchise. Combined with the excellent cinematography, gripping soundtrack, and abundant use of swastikas, the figures clad in Nazi brown and black certainly evoke fear and dread. The civilian clothing, sets, and music also accurately capture the zeitgeist of 1940s Europe and Nazi Germany.
However, the portrayals of historical events in Bonhoffer’s life and the Church struggle in Nazi Germany are far less accurate. There are some scenes that depict actual episodes from Bonhoeffer’s life with a certain level of basic accuracy. These include the death of Bonhoeffer’s brother Walther, his experience of American segregation, the twisted theology and demented proclamation of the Nazi “German Christians,” Bonhoeffer’s time serving parishes in London and at the seminary at Finkenwalde, and his journey to execution. Each of these events did take place for the real Bonhoeffer. Yet in the movie, even these true events are wrapped in glaring inaccuracies. Other emotion-packed scenes fictionalize events to ridiculous extremes that will completely mislead those who are unfamiliar with the historical facts.
As someone who has studied Bonhoeffer’s life and work, a few scenes even caused me to laugh out loud. These included the ludicrous suggestion that Bonhoeffer played piano on stage with Louis Armstrong. Other parts of the movie were frustrating and even offensive if you know the real history of Bonhoeffer’s life, like the misrepresentation of the Confessing Church’s founding not in Berlin by German Lutherans but in London by British Anglicans. Such a depiction dishonors the memory of those German pastors and theologians who opposed the Nazification of Christianity from the very first days of the Third Reich. [1]
Another baffling untruth perpetrated in the film is the completely fictional kidnapping and coercion of Bonhoeffer into leading the seminary at Finkenwalde. In actuality, Bonhoeffer received a pastoral call, through the normal ecclesial profess, from the Confessing Church to lead their seminary. Bonhoeffer accepted this call and bid farewell to the two parishes he was serving in London, England, to return to his homeland to serve as the director of this illegal seminary which was located first at Zingst (on the Baltic) and then at Finkenwalde (then a suburb of Stettin, Germany but now Szczecin in Poland). The falsification and sensationalization of this event overshadows not only actual historical events but also the theological truth that God the Holy Spirit works to call his servants of Word and Sacrament through the ordinary and external means of regular church order—a theological truth to which Bonhoeffer himself was deeply committed.
No movie that is two hours and twelve minutes in length can do full justice to Bonhoeffer’s life and work. Figures such as Bonhoeffer’s Jewish brother-in-law, fellow pastors like Hermann Sasse, and Bonhoeffer’s fiancée Maria von Wedemeyer are completely absent from the film. So are events from Bonhoeffer’s life such as his lecturing at the University of Berlin and lengthy captivity in Tegel prison. Yet, it’s not what the movie leaves out, but instead, the details that it adds that are most frustrating. The untruths added to the film mislead viewers into believing falsehoods about Bonhoeffer’s life and cast a shadow on the actual events of the church struggle and resistance to Nazism. It does not honor the memory of Bonhoeffer to fictionalize and sensationalize the story of his life, theology, and witness to such a degree that it is almost entirely unrecognizable from actual historical events. The story being told in the film is not Bonhoeffer’s story. It’s not the Confession Church’s story. Nor is it the story of the German resistance against Hitler. It is a completely fictional story of Hollywood.
All of Bonhoeffer’s most significant theological works and lectures were written after, not before, his first journey to America.
Perhaps the film’s most egregious departures from reality, however, are not biographical but theological. In the movie, after returning from America for the first time, Bonhoeffer tells his family that he is “done with theology.” In reality, right after his return from America, during the Nazi’s rise to power, Bonhoeffer delivered a powerful series of theological lectures on the book of Genesis. So engaging were these lectures that Bonhoeffer’s students convinced him to publish them as one of his first theological books, Creation and Fall. [2] Anyone who reads this work will note how Bonhoeffer simultaneously engaged deeply in theology as well as the current events in his country. The notion that he gave up theology for politics at this stage is completely false. Indeed, all of Bonhoeffer’s most significant theological works and lectures were written after, not before, his first journey to America.
Throughout the movie, abundant factual inaccuracies are mirrored by theological ones. One instance worth noting takes place in the final scene, where before Bonhoeffer is hanged (not at the Flossenbürg concentration camp as in real life but outside a Bavarian farmhouse), he conducts a service of Holy Communion. In this scene, artistic license goes a bridge too far. While Bonhoeffer did conduct a service with fellow prisoners before his death, it was a service of the Word only, focusing on the lectionary readings for Quasimodigeniti (the second Sunday of Easter). The Sacrament of the Altar was not celebrated. In the film, something further is added to this historical inaccuracy, something which I believe evidences a theological agenda on behalf of the filmmakers. In this scene, Bonhoeffer welcomes an SS officer to the Lord’s Table. This completely fictional aspect to the story seems to advance an agenda for what is known as “open communion,” a practice foreign both to the historic practice of the Christian Church and to Bonhoeffer’s own theology and practice. Open communion is the practice of allowing anyone to receive the Lord’s Supper without qualification of confession of faith or lack thereof. Such a practice is at complete odds with St. Paul’s teaching on this sacrament In 1 Corinthians 11, Martin Luther’s Catechisms (confessed by Bonhoeffer), and with Bonhoeffer’s own teaching and practice. [3]
Yet, in the midst of all of this, there is truth—the truth of the gospel—that shines through the sensationalization and falsification of Bonhoeffer’s life and theology in this fictional film. In one scene of Bonhoeffer’s captivity, he is forced to share a cell with Doctor Sigmund Rascher, a notorious S.S. officer who perpetrated horrific medical experiments on living humans before he ran afoul of S.S. leader Heinrich Himmler and was imprisoned in Buchenwald. The contact between Bonhoeffer and Rascher is entirely fictional, but—as it reflects Bonhoeffer’s actual theology—it is an embellishment that might be judged less egregious than most in the film. In this scene, Rascher—ever the unrepentant Nazi—confesses his undying faith in the ultimate victory of National Socialism. He says, “Our season may be over for now, but we will be back.”
The imprisoned pastor looks straight into the eyes of the Nazi doctor and says, “Your season ended long ago, when light entered into the world. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Bonhoeffer’s response to Rascher is one of gospel truth. Despite all appearances to the contrary, evil will not win. Evil is doomed to lose because God has already turned the tide against it through the incarnation, death, and resurrection of his only begotten Son.
Christians watching the film must decide for themselves whether or not this moment of truth justifies the rest of the film. As I left the theatre, I could not help but ask myself the question our Lord posed in Luke 7 to those who went out into the wilderness to see John the Baptist: “What did you go out to see?” [Luke 7:25a]
If I went to see a well-written fictional story that is very loosely based on someone who resisted the Nazis from the basis of his Christian faith, I was rewarded with a fictional film that is well made and through which the truth indeed shines, if only momentarily. However, if I went to see a cinematic version of the true story of Bonhoeffer’s life, theology, and Christian witness, I was seriously disappointed.
Perhaps those who saw this film might just have their interest piqued so that they actually investigate the true story of Bonhoeffer.
The real Bonhoeffer was not a Hollywood action hero spy who—as this film asserts—abandoned theology in order to “do something” about evil. The real Bonhoeffer was a confessing Christian of deep theological convictions who wrote, taught, and lived out of those convictions. The real Bonhoeffer was a pastor who believed that the final victory over evil has already been won by the God hanging on the cross, who has taken the sin, death, and evil of the entire human race upon Himself. The real Bonhoeffer believed that the Christian has already died to this world, being crucified with Christ in Holy Baptism, and dies daily, living out of that baptismal identity and living to serve one’s neighbor. [4] The real Bonhoeffer believed that serving one’s neighbor means taking on their burdens, their struggles, and the evils perpetrated against them, just as Christ crucified has taken our sin, death, and damnation upon himself. [5] The real Bonhoeffer followed that belief by working to lessen the evils perpetrated against his neighbors through entering into conspiracies to assassinate Adolf Hitler. The real Bonhoeffer did not abandon his theological convictions for political activism, but lived out his theological convictions in the extreme circumstances of the Third Reich.
While Bonhoeffer’s bravery and integrity are above reproach, the film’s account of them remains almost entirely fictional. But perhaps those who saw this film might just have their interest piqued so that they actually investigate the true story of Bonhoeffer. Maybe, just maybe, those who see the movie will pick up and read one of Bonhoeffer’s theological works. Anyone who does this will not be disappointed.
