Luther, the $30 million dollar feature film of the Augustinian monk that changed the world 500 years ago, opened last week in movie theaters around the country. It joined several other feature length films and TV projects currently in the news and on the screens that deal with faith.

Mel Gibson is doing the final cut on The Passion, a film on the last twelve hours of Jesus’ life. Joan of Arcadia, a Sony Pictures television and CBS Production, is a one-hour television series which is essentially an adaptation of the life of Joan of Arc set in present time.

What’s going on here? Don’t these producers know religion is too controversial even for the entertainment industry?

Tothesource turned to Dr. Linda Seger for some insight. After completing her ThD in Drama and Theology, Dr. Seger headed to tinsel town. There she created and defined the job of script consultant in 1981. Dr. Seger has consulted on over 2000 projects, including more than thirty produced television projects and fifty completed feature films. Her list of clients reads like a Hollywood’s Who’s Who.

Tothesource: Congratulations on your involvement with Luther. Your participation in this film was considerable. In fact, you received a technical consultation credit at the end of the film which is unusual for a script consultant. As a Christian who has worked in Hollywood for over twenty years do you see the entertainment industry opening up to spiritual issues?

Dr. Seger: There are clearly many spiritual people in the film industry and even some religious ones. There is an increasing number of Christians writing scripts, probably to a great extent because of the influence of Dr. Ted Baehr who gives the Movieguide Awards every year to films with positive values. He also has a magazine that reviews films from a Christian perspective. As a result, he’s able to get the word out about films with spiritual values.

I think that studios and producers are willing and happy to fund films that are well done and depict positive values. And there’s clearly the audience to see these. But audiences nor people within the film industry like being preached at. If the content is proselytizing, or overly talky, or holds a world view to the exclusion of other world views, and with a condemnation of other world views, it has less chance of success. It’s essential the spiritual person can translate their values into the language of drama and film.

Tothesource: Over 25,000 pastors receive tothesource emails. Every one of them translates positive beliefs and values into language week after week after week. Your book, Making A Good Script Great, revolutionized the film industry by teaching well over one hundred thousand writers, producers, and directors the building blocks of dramatic structure. Could it help pastors make a good sermon great?

Dr. Seger: Making A Good Script Great might encourage pastors to become even more visual in their examples and help them structure the stories that they tell.

In Making a Good Script Great, Creating Unforgettable Characters, Making a Good Writer Great, and Advanced Screenwriting: Raising your Script to the Academy Award Level, I discuss the human issues that we confront at various times in our life, and ways that we become transformed by our ability to overcome the negatives that threaten to immobilize us.

I think a pastor would particularly like the chapters in Advanced Screenwriting on the theme, “What’s it really about?” since I discuss the importance of confronting the spiritual issues in our lives, and discuss what happens when we don’t. I think they’d find the chapter on “Do your characters change and grow?” helpful, since the whole chapter is about transformation, and the last chapter about transforming the audience, which is titled “The Roar of the Crowd”. I would expect that this chapter would be particularly helpful to pastors, since it discusses various methods to help the audience (or congregation) transform.

Interestingly enough, many people who have read my books can tell I’m a Christian, even though there’s nothing explicitly said about it. I grew up Lutheran, the granddaughter of a Lutheran minister, and joined the Society of Friends (Quakers) in 1970.

Tothesource: Luther was a complex man. Smitten by authority, he had a rare talent for obscenity, and an absolute conviction that human nature, especially his nature, was drenched in sin. The details of his life are often disturbing. I thought the film did a good job introducing the audience to these unsettling aspects of Luther without allowing them to take over the film, a cinematic no-no.

Was there discussion on how much history the film could introduce without losing the audience or overshadowing his contribution?

Dr. Seger: We had several Luther historical consultants as part of the team and we certainly had to figure out how to deal with some difficult aspects of his life. For instance, you probably know that Luther was very earthy, and quite scatological. We decided we didn’t want to whitewash him, but didn’t want to turn off Christian audiences either. We decided we had to have some scatological remark early in the film to set this up, and in one draft, the first words out of his mouth were “shit”. We quickly decided that was going too far. So we tried to find humor in some of his remarks, since he had a few choice remarks to make about the Pope. And, he does make some scatological statements under his breath, mainly when arguing with the devil.

We also had to figure out how to work with the Peasants’ War. This was not one of Luther’s best moments since, by siding with the German princes, he basically was giving them permission to slaughter the rebellious peasants. Supposedly about 100,000 were killed. So, we show it, but don’t use all of his specific words since, by this time, we’re moving into the last 25 minutes of the film and we didn’t want to make him totally unsympathetic. So we looked for a balance.

We had another problem to solve. Ordinarily, the protagonist of a film creates the climax of the film. Yet, Luther was not at the Augsburg Confession since it was too dangerous for him to go. So, we had to figure out what Luther was doing while the Princes were there, and then how to develop and build the ending so that we could feel the stakes and the danger and the excitement, even though Luther wasn’t there. I thought it worked well, and was quite powerful.

So, there was a great deal of information to integrate but by keeping it focused, taking out extraneous information, and giving the film a strong structure, I felt that it worked. And Eric Till, the director, did a beautiful job of keeping the story moving and creating very richly textured scenes.

Tothesource: Mel Gibson has taken heat for The Passion negatively depicting Jews. Was the creative team on Luther concerned that the film might offend Catholics?

Dr. Seger: In the meetings I had, this never came up. But this might be because there are some very positive Catholic figures in the film – Cardinal Cajetan, Ulrick the monk, and Staupitz (Luther’s spiritual advisor). In fact, Luther believed so much in the church that his objective was dealing with its corruption. He always presumed that the Pope would see it his way, and couldn’t possibly be in collusion with the selling of indulgences.

When the Pope died, Cardinal Cajetan says: “Leo was a spiritual dwarf, when we needed a giant like Luther." And the Cardinal was clearly disappointed in this Pope. I talked to a nun the other day who mentioned that she was eagerly looking forward to seeing the film, and she said that Luther has totally been redeemed in the eyes of the Catholic Church and that the Catholic church admits that Luther was right. She said Luther is taught to Catholics, and they admire him. They recognize that he was preaching against the corruption, but not against the Church.

Tothesource: I applaud your involvement with Luther. Give me your short pitch on why others should see it.

Dr. Seger: Luther changed the world. I’ve been told that in any list of the 100 most important people in Western culture, Luther would always be among this group. He brought the Bible to the common person, and made it accessible by translating it into German. He emphasized a loving and merciful God. He brought music into the church. Before Luther, only the nuns and monks sang in the church. He made God accessible.

And it’s a story of integrity – a humble monk going up against one of the greatest powers.

I also think it’s a wonderful film. The pacing is wonderful and the characters are very rich. The everyday life of both the rich and the poor is created well. The love story of Luther and Katie is charming. Peter Ustinov is amazing – personally, I wish he’d be nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

There’s humor and danger and warmth and sweetness in many scenes. Many of the people who have seen it tell me they loved it! Not just liked it, but loved it.