Hanged on a Twisted Cross -- Bonhoeffer Documentary

It's not new, but the Dietrich Bonhoeffer documentary, Hanged on a Twisted Cross (1996) seems available to a larger audience -- at least through Netflix.

Narrated by Ed Asner, the documentary shares the life and ministry of Bonhoeffer from his childhood to his death by hanging at Flossenberg Concentration Camp on April 9, 1945. The documentary tells a story that is familiar to many, but likely not to many others. Bonhoeffer is considered one of the great theologians of the 20th century, despite the fact that he died at age 39 and much of his work was done in camps or on the run.

Like many documentaries this isn't the most exciting film, and yet it gets the story right and helps us visualize his life and his work. We're reminded that he was born into a family that wasn't much for religion. Attracted to theology it was in many ways an intellectual exercise. He was, as the film reminds us from his own words, a theologian before he was a Christian. Yet as he became more and more involved in his work with the Confessing Church and then in the conspiracy against Hitler, he wrestled with conflicting ideals, but continued to grow in faith. In the end, facing his own death, he becomes a pastor to his fellow prisoners, and is observed as a man facing the end with great faith and full of prayer.

Thus, this is a worthy effort, worth seeing and sharing, that we might remember one of the great saints of the faith.