Bonhoeffer DVD

This is the best documentary produced about Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It demonstrates a faith and allegiance to Christ in the face of fear and intimidation. It is also unique in its historical footage of the third Reich, as well as interviews with Bonhoeffer's students.

BONHOEFFER is a 93-minute documentary film that tells the dramatic story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the young German Christian theologian who offered one of the first clear voices of resistance to Adolf Hitler. Bonhoeffer openly challenged his church to stand with the Jews in their time of need, and eventually joined his family in the plots to kill Hitler. His books, Cost of Discipleship, Letters and Papers from Prison, and Ethics, were written during the struggle and are considered classics in the world of religion and ethics.

The film, shot on location in Germany and the United States, features interviews with family members, friends, students and associates who knew Bonhoeffer personally, including the last interview given by Bonhoeffer's closest friend and biographer, Eberhard Bethge, and an interview with Ruth Alice von Bismarck, the sister of Bonhoeffer's fiancée, Maria von Wedemeyer.

Extensive research in archives both in Europe and the US yielded extraordinary archival footage, including a speech by Hitler praying for God's blessing on him and the German people and Bonhoeffer family footage that features the only known moving footage of Dietrich. The production team was also given access to never-before-seen personal and family photographs that help bring visual context to Bonhoeffer's life.

The film was awarded the 2004 Gabriel Award, the 2004 Wilbur Award, the 2003 Rhode Island International Film Festival Best Documentary Award and the 2004 Columbus International Film and Video Festival Best Documentary Award.

Some of the issues that are raised in this DVD are:

• Centrality of Christ in Christian Ethics
• Centrality of the community of believers as the center of Christ's redeeming work. (as opposed to "individual" Christianity)
  
• Christ's commandments as being attainable and normative for the church today.
• Centrality of the "cross." A willingness to abandon "self" amd follow Christ in every circumstance.
• Importance of the church's engagement in the social issues that surround it.
  

Bonus materials:

• Selected Bonhoeffer text
• Interview with director
• Profiles
• Archival photo gallery
• Original theatrical trailer
• Chapters

Format: DVD
Release Year:2003
Running Time: 90 minutes
Color: Color & B/W
Language: English

Review:

1. This is a compeling documentary about the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a prominent Christian theologian. Bonhoeffer, who lived in Germany during the time of Nazi rule, ultimately gave his life in an effort to stop Hitler's tyranical rule and opression of the Jewish race.

The documentary explores the concept of Christian ethics, and shows how Bonhoeffer was able to reconcile seemingly contradictory beliefs of the sanctity of life and justice - to the point that he was willing to participate in the resistance's attempts to assasinate Hitler.

The documentary uses phenomenal footage of Hitler's reign, interviews with Bonhoeffer's friends, family, and students, and analysis from historians to vividly tell this story. The story has direct relevance to the world we live in today.

If you are interested in an uplifitng account of how God can use one ordinary man to make a difference, then this movie is for you. Or, if you simply want to watch an amazingly well told documentary about an important era in German history (without feeling preached at), then this film also is for you. It certainly makes you think about our current world politics from a fresh point of view. E. Cook

2. Bonhoeffer was a German Christian theologian who worked during WWII in the Resistence against Hitler. He was imprisoned during the last years of the war, and little before the fall of Berlin he was killed. In prison he wrote his famous "Letters", his first book that I read, and which is a must read companion book to this dvd.

This is an excellent documentary, not only about the man, but about the times he lived in, the difficult task of having to decide between doing what God called us (in this case him) to do, or choosing not to get involved in what is going on around us. Bonhoeffer realized that he could not escape the war and go to America, and then expect to have any role in post-war Germany, preaching what people should do.

One of the great things he said was that whenever we read the Bible we should believe that God is speaking to us, right there, and right then. His crime, according to the Nazis, was that he reminded people who their real Fuhrer was: the Lord Jesus Christ. Q. Miense.

Links:
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Dietrich Bonhoeffer Online Exhibition