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Rating: 
Summary: Not the best on the life of Luther.
Review: I agree with the person above who said this PBS documentary was bland. The dramatizations were sparse and unneccessary. Mostly, Luther is shown as an old man, riding in a cart, or on his deathbed, with cut-ins of scholars, expounding on his life and influence. Not really a "Life and Times of Luther," but more of a "Collection of Opinions about the Life and Times of Luther." Very little is said about his faith. More is said about the politics of his times.
Some better resources: Martin Luther (1953, starring Niall MacGinnis), Luther (2003, starring Joseph Fiennes). I even thought that Luther (1973, starring Stacy Keach), with all of its shortcomings, was a better presentation of Luther's life than this.
Rating: 
Summary: Good program, but narrow focus
Review: I enjoyed this program on Martin Luther, but felt that much of the story remains to be told. It is two hours in length, but at this pace, it should have been four.
Only halfway through the show does Luther nail his 95 Theses to the Wittenburg church door; most of the episode focuses on Luther's developing faith as a monk, and his penchant for giving his all to every undertaking. Finally his rage consumes him and he writes the Theses. The second hour details Luther's struggle to be heard and his unwillingness to back down from his statements about the corruption in the Catholic Church at the time. I felt the program did a good job explaining that Luther took this very seriously, that he felt people's salvation was at stake (if they believed in the power of indulgences). It helps to understand why Luther was willing to put his life on the line, as he surely did. He was THAT passionate about people, trying to save them from what he believed were grave errors.
But after covering Luther's appearance at the Diet of Worms, not much more is mentioned before the film ends. I was surprised that virtually nothing about Luther's theology (salvation via faith alone) was covered. It seemed that this program was more about the ending of an empire (the Catholic Church) than the beginning of a new one. And that may have been the producer's intention, I don't know. If it was, though, it should have been titled something other than just "Martin Luther."
I give it four stars, because I thought it was well done. Just not nearly thorough enough for the topic.
Rating:
Summary: IF you like the empires series you will like this one!
Review: I have all of the empires series myself, and while this is not the best one I found it to be enlighting and consistent to the integrity established in the other episodes.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful background missing from MY Lutheran upbringing
Review: I saw the program on PBS recently which is why I am ordering the DVD .. for myself and to share.I was raised Lutheran, turned atheist at age 12, became a Christian again at age 21. I found this to be a wonderful presentation of the history I had some sketchy introduction to during my two and one half years of Missouri Synod Lutheran parochial school. I hadn't realized how significant a part Luther played in stating basic doctrines (not theological, mind you) of individual freedom, worth, and self-determination. Without Protestantism, there would have been no American Revolution.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful background missing from MY Lutheran upbringing
Review: I saw the program on PBS recently which is why I am ordering the DVD .. for myself and to share. I was raised Lutheran, turned atheist at age 12, became a Christian again at age 21. I found this to be a wonderful presentation of the history I had some sketchy introduction to during my two and one half years of Missouri Synod Lutheran parochial school. I hadn't realized how significant a part Luther played in stating basic doctrines (not theological, mind you) of individual freedom, worth, and self-determination. Without Protestantism, there would have been no American Revolution.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful and majestic
Review: I was impressed by how the writers used both the last journey to Eisleben in 1546 and the prior 1521 journey to Worms as complimentary events. The visual imagery was fantastic. the narrators were powerful and their discourse was enlightening. The comparison between the printing press and the internet was novel. Jan Hus failed because he was before printing. I have watched it over and over again. Luther was a man who changed history - of course God's sovereignty over history and human events is apparent. Luther should have failed. But he did not.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful and majestic
Review: I was impressed by how the writers used both the last journey to Eisleben in 1546 and the prior 1521 journey to Worms as complimentary events. The visual imagery was fantastic. the narrators were powerful and their discourse was enlightening. The comparison between the printing press and the internet was novel. Jan Hus failed because he was before printing. I have watched it over and over again. Luther was a man who changed history - of course God's sovereignty over history and human events is apparent. Luther should have failed. But he did not.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Overview
Review: I've looked over the reviews for this release, and I think I see two camps. One is composed of Lutheran scholars - or at least those with an in-depth understanding of Luther and what he meant for the modern world. They seem to think this documentary is dull or simplistic. The other (of which I am a part) know who Luther is, know of the 95 theses, and know that he was the major figure of the Reformation, but not much beyond that - the personality and figure of Luther himself, the level of pressure he was under, his effect on secular government as well as the Church, etc. To this second camp, I think this documentary is a fabulous overview of the life of Luther and what immense influence he had over the course of history. It touches on the major points of his life and effect, and it NEVER seemed dull to me - quite the opposite. As filmmaking, the documentary relies on original footage more than old drawings or paintings. The actors are good, although oddly, they never get to speak a line. It's all narration (Liam Neeson does well and the actor of Luther's voice is convincing) instead of direct re-enactment. It perhaps lacks the freshness of PBS's 'Benjamin Franklin' for this reason, and might explain why another reviewer found the documentary to be boring. In the end, I found this technique to be a very minor point of critique. A final thought would be that the soundtrack on this DVD is top-notch - I would have bought a CD of it if it had been released.
Rating:
Summary: Amazingly Bland for such a dramatic life and Epoch
Review: PBS succeeds in neither offending nor intriguing the viewer with this bland portrait of Luther. They emphasize that his renunciation of churchly authority paved the way to the Enlightenment and the rise of the individual and that is the focus of this video. Thus theology, history and most of the dramatic events and personalities of Luther's Reformation are bypassed as the video blandly proceeds from Luther's early life in Erfurt as aa student to his refusal to recant at Augsburg in 1530. The Tower experience is never mentioned, one never meets Melanchthon and few competing/interesting views about Luther are proferred. I was disappointed that no real Luther scholars were interviewed, thosew who were never said anything so incorrect yet nothing that was ever insightful. Everything was dummied down to a very generic level of free thinking vs. bad Roman Catholic church. Amazing that no R.C.s were interviewed! After all Luther was considered a heretic at least until Vatican II. The shots of Erfurt,Wittenberg & Rome are all from a distance. PBS has made one of history's most dramatic lives remarkably bland.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much psychology, very little theology
Review: Why is it so hard for television to convey ideas? Everything is reduced to simple and unoriginal conflicts -- father/son, mentor/student, or husband/wife, without any suggestion people can have lives of the mind. Watching "Martin Luther," you'd think Lutheranism owes more to Hans Luther's alleged cruelty to his his son than Augustinian thought. This idea of the Reformation as a rebellion against all father figures has dogged Lutheran studies since Freud; Heiko Oberman finally slayed the beast in his 1982 biography of the reformer, but the producers apparently didn't read that book. There is some brief discussion of justification by faith, but hardly any attempt to place that thought in the context of earlier theology. The restlessness of the German princes under the Pope is given only passing mention, and not a peep is made about Catholic reformers like Erasmus or Thomas More. It's all Luther: neurotic Luther confessing six times a day, disillusioned Luther coming back from Rome, tired Luther preparing lectures, enlightened Luther sparking the rebellion against the evil, evil papacy with apparently no precedents to draw from. Most of this, the documentary assures us, stemmed from his dad's cruelty. It's Reformation as Oedipus complex. The documentary gets Luther's, ahem, earthiness across, and accurately depicts his constant fear of the devil. It doesn't shy away from his anti-semitism, either. The talking heads are good but apparently belong to a mutual admiration society; a Roman Catholic commentator was desperately needed. But the weaknesses make the film little better than an episode of Biography. The obsession with psychology turns Luther into a 16th century version of Judge Judy (Luther: "The pope should shut his mouth" Judy: "I said shut up!"). Oberman's book will tell you more about Luther in its first hundred pages than "Martin Luther" will, and it doesn't have the Freudian obsessions of this movie.
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