Having recently seen Eric Till's uneven Luther, I felt compelled to learn more about 16th century church reformer, and was gratified to find Cassian Harrison's 2002 PBS documentary Martin Luther. As suspected, the gaping potholes that mark Till's production are filled in with background information and fuller exposure to the facts. Noting that the German version runs eight minutes longer than the 113 minute American cut, it makes me wonder if Till was severely handicapped by time constraints. Considering how Luther stood up to the Pope and the entire social order of the day, this certainly should have been a compelling drama—one that warranted an epic length Lawrence of Arabia or Amadeus treatment. How strange to find a straightforward PBS documentary more interesting than a dramatic version, but that's the way it is.

Bookending Martin Luther's life with a horse-drawn wagon reenactment of his final trip to his 1483 birthplace in Eiselben, Harrison's film begins with a description about the times. Smoothly narrated by actor Liam Neeson (Schindler's List), the documentary provides background about how the Black Plague was wiping out half the European population and how the Catholic Church had permeated all facets of life. Details about Luther's childhood remain sketchy, but the background statements from his father and mother supply ample material for speculation about the character of the future religious rebel.

Talking heads are kept to a minimum and are deftly interwoven into the fabric of the documentary that keeps interest using effective camera movement throughout location shooting, still life portraits, and cameo re-enactments—much in the style of Ken Burns documentaries minus the sentimental musical soundtrack. Despite the sheer volume of academic information, the script remains remarkably down to earth, very much like the real life Martin Luther.

The documentary is far easier to follow than the fictionalized Luther, which begins in a thunderstorm with a hooded figure promising to give his life to God if he'll spare his ass from getting struck by a lightning bolt. Without the context of Luther's childhood and family expectations, this scene is lacking—something that the documentary admirably fills in, without being overly dramatic about the storm. They stick to the facts—that "something" happened to Luther during that fortuitous night journey that convinced him to abandon his father's desired path and turn him to the Augustine monastery. Additional layers are supplied with details about this monastery—how this order was extremely strict and ascetic, and how this suited the guilt-ridden young monk.

Martin Luther is not an unfocused chronological re-telling of Luther's life. Although following an essentially sequential structure, grand themes are discernable—the importance of the individual over accepted practices, Luther's astute scholarship and political awareness, the importance of the printing press to the times. Luther isn't the first to oppose the Catholic Church, but he was the first to succeed in bringing its hypocrisy to light without getting torched himself. With a wealth of Luther's writings and historical documents available and a vast array of religious and political figures, it would be easy to go astray and muddle the message like Till's drama. So credit Harrison for his clear-cut academic research and creating a portrait that respects and entertains the audience.

Certainly much additional material is deliberately left out of the final cut. Although Luther's wife and family are briefly mentioned, details about the escaped nun and about their blissful family life are absent. Similarly, the most troubling writings of Luther are given short shrift: his anti-Semitic tracts that equate Jews with devil worshippers. These are briefly quoted and dropped in the regular cut; however, the DVD special features include a number of historians that discuss them more fully. One reveals that the definitive collection of Luther's writings had even debated omitting these disturbing anti-Jewish documents from their records but relented in the end. Thus, the documentary does approach its subject with in a more even-handed manner that encourages additional digging.

Overall, Harrison's two-part documentary serves as the definitive cinematic introduction to Martin Luther, avoiding the short cuts that the fictional Luther takes to paint his portrait. Some of the things I thought cheesy in the fictional film made much more sense when connected with the facts (like the lame visual metaphor of Luther as wild boar, that is actually based on a Pope Leo X document). Luther is certainly a complex man that combines heroic aspects with villainous ones, more plentiful biographical data exists to fashion worthwhile drama. But, for now, combining a first viewing of the PBS documentary before tackling the fictional take would be your best bet.