TV: Robert Shaw Gives Intense Portrayal of Luther
 

A CONDENSED version of "Luther," which was seen on Broadway in 1963, had many moments of forceful eloquence last night in a television adaptation starring Robert Shaw over the American Broadcasting Company network. But the pressures of the clock so common to TV, including the unfortunate commercial interruptions, ultimately caused the study of the Reformation leader to lose momentum.

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The main outlines of Mr. Osborne's portrait of the young monk whose influence is still to be found in today's newspapers were followed in the individual episodes of richest dramatic content. But the revealing scene of Luther's turning on the peasants whom he had aroused to rebellion did not come off too well on the small screen. The concluding segments were too hurried to allow the viewer to savor fully the man who had built his strength on his own frailties.

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But such reservations notwithstanding, the London interpretation caught the stature of Martin Luther in his challenge to the Roman Catholic Church and his stern belief that faith is not something to be formally structured but rather to be found in individual service to God.

 

Mr. Shaw was the embodiment of overwhelming intensity in his portrayal of Luther, perhaps a shade too much for the intimacy of television close-ups. But in the magnificent confrontation with his father, played by Kenneth J. Warren, and his subsequent rejection of compromise with papal representatives, Mr. Shaw arrested attention with his projection of the uneasy torment of the man who follows his own independent course in helping others to find God without his donning the mantle of omnipotence.

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Jack Gould - New York Times  January 30th 1968

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