Empires-Martin Luther (Roadshow) (2002)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio Trailer-The Empire Series
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	109:24
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (54:08)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Cassian Harrison
Studio Distributor	SBS Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Timothy West
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (320Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.75:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.75:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    This documentary series has been of generally very high production quality so far, apart from some minor lapses from the rule in terms of DVD transfer quality (a couple in this series were not presented 16x9 enhanced and one with notably lesser video quality than all the rest). But above all, the content of these independently written, produced and directed documentaries has proven to be particularly enlightening and entertaining (again, with only one exception in the series so far proving to be less well written). As a series, so far it has been a winner.

    So it was with some high expectation that I picked up Empires: Martin Luther to review. The first thing I must admit to you (and I'm sure this will confuse others looking at the title too) is that I was expecting a documentary on one Martin Luther King, Jr the famous 20th century black American civil rights activist. But this is NOT his story. Instead, it is the equally fascinating story of Martin Luther, a 15th century German monk who single-handedly challenged and shook one of the greatest and most powerful empires in all of history, the empire of the Roman Catholic Church. Martin Luther boldly challenged the hypocrisy and riches and self-appointed power of the church and stressed to the world that 1/ we should all stand up for what we believe in, and 2/ that every person (not just the self-appointed clergy) is precious in the sight of God. Such thinkings were revolutionary and considered heretical against the established rules and dogma of the church at the time. Standing up against the weight of enormous pressure from the Pope and the church, Martin Luther remained defiant in his unveiling of hypocrisy in a mighty empire and in the end, started a religious and political revolution in the early 16th century that swept across Europe and started the movement known as Protestantism. Martin Luther turned out to be one of the greatest single emancipators of human history. He took on a hugely powerful empire and said "you are wrong". If you are unfamiliar with this man's story - as I was - then this documentary will be highly enlightening at the same time as entertaining.

    The two episodes on this DVD are:   

• Episode I: Driven to Defiance (54:08)
  This episode establishes the period of late 15th century Europe, dominated by the vast empire of the Catholic Church, a seemingly unassailable empire built on the promise to its peoples that if you follow its rules and laws, then you will escape the horrors of this world and find eternal happiness in heaven. But, like many empires, the church ruled all aspects of daily life and was ultimately a corrupt, self-perpetuating machine of power. Against this backdrop the life of Martin Luther unfolds, a young man who was profoundly affected by the experiences of the plague sweeping Europe and entered the life of a monk in one of Europe's most fanatical and onerous monasteries. Sent on a pilgrimage to the Holy City of Rome, he was disillusioned to there see first hand what the church had become; a corrupt society ruled by a hedonistic Pope, a Europe-wide corporate enterprise, a financial institution supported on the profits of monasteries such as his own and fees on the faithful, a bureaucratic State with palaces and even a military power, an empire well-protected by the entrenched doctrine that only the clergy could facilitate the sacraments of God and fulfil the people's objective of salvation. After quickly losing his faith and being ravaged by guilt at his thoughts, Martin Luther eventually started to question the very established teachings of the church and, after studying the bible further, realised that you didn't need the intersection of the church to get to heaven, and that you didn't need the rituals of the church to achieve salvation - it was instead a matter between you and God. And so Luther penned his famous "95 theses" that criticised all manner of aspects of the church and of the Pope himself. These writings he pinned to the front door of the local church (a common practice for airing theological discussion papers at the time), not realising how quickly the writings would spread around Germany and what furore and eventual revolution this simple act would bring about. Luther was set on a collision course with one of the greatest and most powerful empires of all time.
• Episode II: The Reluctant Revolutionary (55:16)
  Threatened with excommunication (and so being condemned to a life of damnation) and death at the stake for his "heretical acts", Martin Luther did not give in. He remained defiant in his revolutionary beliefs and instead seized the advent of the modern printing press to further disseminate his teachings among the German peoples. In a masterstroke, he then appealed directly to the German nobility, tapping into the growing sea of discontent at the fact that German funds were being bled out of the country in order to support the increasingly hard-to-defend practices of the Roman Catholic Pope. Eventually turning his attention to writing constructive criticism of the current church regime, Luther's popularity amongst the common folk spread as the ideals underpinning his own new system of faith were widely accepted. But Luther realised he must eventually face the music of the Roman diet (religious court), presided over by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles. And so this episode tells the story of what became of Martin Luther at the diet and the story of the bloody revolution that would be persecuted in his name - events that would forever impact history.

    Both these episodes are narrated by Liam Neeson, and his distinctive and strong voice adds weight to what is already an A-class production.

    A minor complaint:  As with some other DVDs in the Empires series, the placement of chapter markers on this disc leaves a little to be desired. There is a lack of adequate chapter markers in appropriate places to separate the content and provide quick access to relevant key sections within each episode. The placement of what chapter markers there are seems somewhat spurious and not well thought out at all.

Video

    The presented aspect ratio is the original 1.75:1, as screened on TV, and the transfer is 16x9 enhanced.

    Sharpness is for the most part high, as would be expected of a very recently-produced, decent budget series. Most scenes offer satisfactory to quite pleasing levels of detail in foreground and background images, with little grain, ample shadow detail and minimal low level noise. As has been the case in others in this series however, there is noticeably more grain in scenes shot in lower light levels and this is no doubt a function of the type of film stock used, also resulting in softer resolution and, occasionally, low level noise in these scenes. As it turns out though, the vast majority of the action in these two episodes takes place in daylight or in sufficiently lit interiors, and so the vast majority of this DVD transfer boasts very good image quality.

    Colour is consistent and well rendered, with perfectly adequate saturation and a varied colour palette used to good effect, particularly highlighted in the rich renaissance artworks of the Vatican. Skin tones are fine and black levels are pleasingly solid, although black levels do tend to drop off a bit to being less solid charcoals in the occasional low-light scene.

    Pleasingly, there are virtually no artefacts to note at all - this is a modern, very clean and very well-handled transfer. MPEG artefacts are absent, film-to-video artefacts are restricted to only the most minor instances of near-aliasing on very fine lines of drawings and structures, and there are no film artefacts at all, other than the visible grain in the low-light scenes.

    The English for the Hearing Impaired subtitle language stream is very clear, well placed, well timed and accurate.

    This disc is RSDL-formatted, but I did not note the layer change, so assume it has been logically placed in between the two episodes.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The quality of the audio transfer is also high, being a perfectly sufficient English Dolby Digital 2.0 track (encoded at 320 Kb/s).

    Dialogue quality cannot be faulted; the narrator Liam Neeson enunciates clearly and is a pleasure to listen to. I had no issues with the audio sync.

    The music score is appropriate, lends well to the context and is not overused. The DVD's audio transfer handles the score clearly across the range.

    This is not a surround-sound audio track, but if you listen with Dolby Pro-Logic engaged there will be the odd subtle bit of re-directed music and ambience.

    Subwoofer use is minimal.
   

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    After a short Empires series main menu introduction sequence, being animated with audio and provided at 1.78:1 but not 16x9 enhanced, the main menu for this DVD itself is static with audio and provided at 1.33:1. It is sufficient.

    In comparison to the Region 1 release, Region 4 misses out on:

• Interview featurette extras:  "Luther The Hero", "Luther The Villain" and "Luther's World"
• Behind the scenes featurette.

    In comparison to the Region 4 release, Region 1 misses out on:

• nothing.

    It is unclear exactly what these featurette extras comprise, but I'm willing to bet the interview segments are really just 'more of the same', re-hashing what is contained in the documentary proper. It is also unclear whether the "behind-the-scenes" featurette is anything substantial or just a piece of fluff - after all, this is a documentary, so apart from just more interview segments with the researchers, one wonders how much value this featurette could really add.

    You can make up your own mind, but I am going to call this one even, recommending the local release for the PAL transfer.

    Yet another highly enlightening and entertaining documentary in the Empires series makes its way to DVD. This is proving to be quite a valuable little history documentary series indeed. This one deals with an episode of history that many of us may not be familiar with, but one which is very important in the annals of the great emancipators of human history. A highly recommended documentary.

    Video and audio quality are very good.

    Unfortunately, there are no real extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall