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Bonhoeffer (2003)

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82

Average Rating: 7.2/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 2

No consensus yet.

audience

78

liked it
Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 623

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Movie Info

Culled from an array of archival footage, on-location shooting, dramatic narration, and interviews with family, friends, and historians, the documentary Bonhoeffer strives to recreate the life of the theologian who openly railed against Hitler's growing stronghold on Germany and beyond in the years leading up to World War II. A devout Christian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer organized the Confessing Church in the early '30s, urging his following to join forces with the Jews in fighting the Third Reich.

Apr 20, 2004

First Run Features

All Critics (37) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (23) | Rotten (9) | DVD (2)

There is more to the philosophy and faith of Dietrich Bonhoeffer than a 90-minute documentary can begin to cover, but this is a powerful and timely introduction.

November 28, 2003 Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | Comment
Dallas Morning News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A heroic odyssey that is illuminated with admirable clarity.

October 9, 2003 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | Comment
Los Angeles Times
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Bonhoeffer is PBS-dry at times, but its portrait of a latter-day martyr is undeniably poignant and thought-provoking.

July 17, 2003 Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | Comment
Minneapolis Star Tribune
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Whatever form the movie takes, it's right and fitting that such a life gets our attention.

July 11, 2003 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
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There is both spiritual and historical substance in the things said, and such obvious reverence for the subject, that the film ultimately has a charming charmlessness.

July 11, 2003 Comment
Washington Post
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It never quite escapes the classroom and church group, and it seems a little too content to view Bonhoeffer as a martyr.

July 11, 2003 Full Review Source: Boston Globe | Comment
Boston Globe
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Today's church needs Bonhoeffer's example and teaching, and Doblmeier's project makes a worthy contribution to our understanding of this great man.

November 1, 2006 Comment

Bonhoeffer doesn't probe as deeply as one might like into the details and implications of his theology, but is an invaluable study of a man of conscience.

October 6, 2004 Full Review Source: Mixed Reviews | Comment

To its credit, the film examines Bonhoeffer's life and thought in an expressly theological light… [His ideas] are as integral to the portrait as his resistance work.

August 22, 2004 Full Review Source: Decent Films Guide | Comment
Decent Films Guide

Bonhoeffer follows the life of one prominent churchman as he develops an ethics to nourish the anti-Nazi resistence.

August 8, 2004 Comment

A solid and respectable piece about a man of enormous integrity and courage.

December 30, 2003 Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion | Comment
One Guy's Opinion

With this much intrigue and planning, passion and conviction, political and religious controversy, this story should have been riveting, but it's not.

November 26, 2003 Full Review Source: TheMovieChicks.com | Comment

Though we get little sense of Bonhoeffer the man, the film remains a fascinating account of the evolution of his revisionist thought, which led to a theological justification of collective and, if necessary, violent resistance to tyranny.

October 9, 2003 Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | Comment
L.A. Weekly

Director Martin Doblmeier has assembled an impressive array of archival material and recent interviews.

September 19, 2003 Full Review Source: Oregonian | Comment
Oregonian

When its subject is as fascinating as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a movie doesn't need bells and whistles.

July 22, 2003 Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | Comment
St. Paul Pioneer Press
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Bonhoeffer

It has interesting moments, but I also found it rather slow and boring at times. The archive footage is fascinating, especially that of Adolph Hitler. I just wasn?t as compelled by Bonhoeffer as I suppose I should have been. Although I admire his panache, he was a bit of a christian zealot himself.

April 15, 2010
jam233
James Higgins

See how a bunch of Good Christians gave us the "Camps" Some real Christians did stand on higher ground.Makes the News we hear today sound different.

June 26, 2007
sanscare
Robert San Socie

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