[Warning: There be spoilers below.]

The film “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” takes its lead from the sprawling biography of the same name written by Eric Metaxas and it manages to present a compelling picture of a complicated man whose views have had a massive influence on the thinking of many people in the post-World War II world where religion has had an increasingly complicated relationship with corrupt societies and governments. The film manages to distill Bonhoeffer’s complexity into a compact narrative of just over two hours by turning the episodic life of its subject into a film that is clearly divided into episodes centered around the prison flashbacks of the noted German theologian/amateur spy and assassin as he awaited execution for his role in the Canaris spy ring and the failed 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler’s life as well as a role in money laundering related to the delivery of seven Jews into Switzerland.

Dietrich Bonhoeeffer was nothing if not a complicated man, and the title of the film only hints at the complexities that could be found within a man who was both deeply fond of his family but who never married nor had children of his own. He was a scion of an elite German family long dedicated to academic advancement as well as national service but found close friendships with New York’s downtrodden black church, from which he discovered a freedom from dead forms of religion that allowed him crucial space to view the Jew as a brother in the world of Late Weimer and Nazi Germany, in a way that provided the German church with critical distance from failed Nazi ideology and ultimately costing Bonhoeffer his life, though thankfully not his reputation nor his importance. One of the fascinating aspects of Bonhoeffer’s complex legacy is that it is one that can and has inspired Christians who would consider themselves strong partisans of the right and left in political terms. Bonhoeffer’s uncompromising demands for justice and righteousness to people in difficult political circumstances and his hostility to the state and its corruption are elements that can be claimed by many people who find themselves opposed to stale and corrupt religious practices but who agree on little else.

Indeed, the episodes that the movie includes are rather varied, and in generally chronological order. We meet Dietrich as a young boy, quick of foot and convinced that he would be able to find a way to become invisible and hide from the persistent chasing of his older brother Walter, who ends up dying in the horrors of World War I. We next find Bonhoeffer as a bored student in Union Theological Seminary in New York befriending an Alabama southern black transplant who saw in Harlem’s sophisticated jazz culture freedom from the downtrodden life of Southern rural blacks, even if racism could still threaten the lives and safety of blacks and their friends even in this world of relative freedom. Bonhoeffer returns to Germany to find Hitler taking over, and quickly finds himself making enemies as an outspoken foe of Nazis and their corrupt state church. He goes to England to seek alliances with the British Anglican community and publishing the start of a schismatic organization called the Confessing Church. Another return to Germany finds him serving as the instructor of a secret seminary for Lutheran clergy opposed to Hitler’s regime, and the destruction of that seminary leads Bonhoeffer to help oppose Hitler from within the Abwehr assisting his brother-in-law in various efforts before fleeing again to avoid being caught for his efforts to deliver seven Jews safely into Switzerland. He finds himself unable to escape even as the efforts of his brother-in-law and others to assassinate Hitler are unsuccessful, and eventually he is arrested by the SS and placed in a special prison where he writes and prays to God for help to deal with his situation while pondering whether freedom is to come through death or delivery by the Allies.

In general, this film is rather well-acted even if the cast is certainly obscure. The jump cuts between the various vignettes shown have a strong logic to them and are presented as part of Bonhoeffer’s attempts to make sense of his destiny as he approaches his martyrdom as a victim of Nazi oppression and thus demonstrates his willingness to share in the unjust suffering of Jesus Christ as well as the Jewish people whom Hitler sought to destroy in Europe. To the lead actor’s credit, Jonas Dassler presents Bonhoeffer as someone who is deeply idealistic and passionate but also someone who is extremely punchable, a courageous brainiac but one who regularly suffers physical blows delivered by stronger bullying sort of people both in the United States as well as in Hitler’s Germany. Even if Bonhoeffer is obviously meant to be a sympathetic character, his adoption of deceptive means and morally complex political involvement as well as his irritating sense of moral superiority and demanding idealism certainly alienated many people who could have been persuaded by a less strident and more gracious approach. The filmmakers here are to be praised in presenting their subject warts and all, someone who is to be appreciated and celebrated, but also someone whose flaws are as critical as his virtues in understanding his fate.

If you happen to share a curiosity in Bonhoeffer and his role in providing Germany with a conscience during its darkest hour, and allowing Christianity to maintain its own reputation as a force for social good even in the face of oppressive and evil (and popular) leaders, this movie does a good job of presenting how this came to be, and should encourage readers to turn to the books of Metaxas about Bonhoeffer as well as Bonhoeffer’s own challenging writings (“Life Together” and “The Cost Of Discipleship” in particular) and seek to learn more about Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the context of his time. The film explicitly points to the need for people to avoid repeating the mistakes that led to the Holocaust, and truly we live in dark times full of Jew-hatred and a general closing of the heart against unpopular peoples in need of refuge. This film is a timely call to the better angels of our nature, among its other virtues.