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Why is it so hard for television to convey ideas? Everything is reduced to simple and unoriginal conflicts -- father/son, mentor/student, or husband/wife, without any suggestion people can have lives of the mind. Watching "Martin Luther," you'd think Lutheranism owes more to Hans Luther's alleged cruelty to his his son than Augustinian thought. This idea of the Reformation as a rebellion against all father figures has dogged Lutheran studies since Freud; Heiko Oberman finally slayed the beast in his 1982 biography of the reformer, but the producers apparently didn't read that book. There is some brief discussion of justification by faith, but hardly any attempt to place that thought in the context of earlier theology. The restlessness of the German princes under the Pope is given only passing mention, and not a peep is made about Catholic reformers like Erasmus or Thomas More. It's all Luther: neurotic Luther confessing six times a day, disillusioned Luther coming back from Rome, tired Luther preparing lectures, enlightened Luther sparking the rebellion against the evil, evil papacy with apparently no precedents to draw from. Most of this, the documentary assures us, stemmed from his dad's cruelty. It's Reformation as Oedipus complex. The documentary gets Luther's, ahem, earthiness across, and accurately depicts his constant fear of the devil. It doesn't shy away from his anti-semitism, either. The talking heads are good but apparently belong to a mutual admiration society; a Roman Catholic commentator was desperately needed. But the weaknesses make the film little better than an episode of Biography. The obsession with psychology turns Luther into a 16th century version of Judge Judy (Luther: "The pope should shut his mouth" Judy: "I said shut up!"). Oberman's book will tell you more about Luther in its first hundred pages than "Martin Luther" will, and it doesn't have the Freudian obsessions of this movie.