Bonhoeffer (2024) Film Review
The following review contains spoilers.
Bonhoeffer is a war drama that tells the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor who witnesses the rise of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi terror machine during World War II, and ultimately decided to act. First, he accuses the Catholic church of doing nothing about Hitler’s advance through Europe and early signs of a genocidal agenda. But then he was part of a group accused of planning a plot to kill Hitler. Bonhoeffer was killed by the Nazis a few days before the Allies made their final advance and the Reich took its deadly hit.
If we add the subheader to the title of the film Bonhoeffer, it would end up being Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin. Not that anything is wrong with that, but this will give you a pretty good idea of the kind of film you’re about to watch. Todd Komarnicki’s passion project is not exactly a bad film. It’s just a film that takes a lot of liberties to achieve its drama.
Is that actually a bad thing? Absolutely not. But it will be one of the reasons why people may look down on it. The other one being the production by Angel Studios, a production company that’s been endlessly linked to Christian values, and we know Hollywood doesn’t care much for orthodox stances like those. But again, it’s not bad. It has high production value and a pretty good performance by Jonas Dassler. But the problem is that it pushes forward the belief that what we’re seeing actually happened: If Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s story is so important, how come no one had dared to make a movie about him?
Yes, it’s a shallow take. On purpose, and not very serious. Bonhoeffer checks all its ground rules with Komarnicki’s ambition to make a faithful historical drama and using actual locations where everything took place. In that regard, Bonhoeffer is outstanding. Writer/director Komarnicki also makes sure to use a different narrative that, while it’s innovative, it’s also confusing at some point to those who are not familiar with Bonhoeffer. Jumping back and forth with flashbacks isn’t helpful, but it works for the character.
I’m no fan of Angel Studios’ productions, but I’m not a fan of studios in general. Part of what makes this gig worth having is experiencing different points of view, and being able to objectively analyze a possibly biased story. Bonhoeffer goes a long way in blaming the church for many things that happened back then, which is kind of weird, if the accusations of the studio’s relationship with Christianity have a foundation that makes them trustworthy. I won’t expand on the differences between the several offshoots of the church, because I’m not a theology expert, but the basics are the basics and this is visible in the film.
What we see is probably a toned-down version of what actually happened. The film depicts Bonhoeffer as an earthbound saint, but then the poster lands him an assassin title. It’s inconsistent, yes, but it isn’t reason enough to stop you from enjoying the film. The important thing is, you should watch a film and draw your own conclusions. Not about the veracity of what the film portrays, but about being able to differentiate what’s on the screen for entertainment purposes, political agendas, and context.
