A Hidden Life

A beautifully elegiac film by Terence Malick about Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian peasant farmer who would not fight for the **** in World War II, even when he faced execution for his refusal. The pacing is perfect as the film moves from the beautiful countryside where Jägerstätter lived before the **** came to conscript him into their army to the narrow prison where he dies because he refuses to fight for them. Malick has created a horrifying and emotionally unforgettable film.

As with 70% of Mr Malick’s later works, this one runs forever - while telling what amounts to little more than a short story. Deeply felt, spiritual, and at times superb looking, it suffers from his trade-mark extended minimalist style. The editing is often abysmal (in need of a collaborating editor) with jarring continuity jump cuts, possibly revealing the fact many scenes were too long, with little to say, so were cut down to serve their purpose. To some, this may look trendy but for many, it may be shoddy to look at. On paper, this potent story would have looked impressive - yet the final result on screen will reflect only a small percentage of its power. For a fact-based story, it amazed me that the cruel German prison system allowed any letters to be written, let alone sent. I’d have also assumed any that were forwarded would have been heavily censored – in this situation that appears not to be the case. Characters often come and go with little introduction, so acute concentration is required. Thankfully, the last half is a little more structured than the somewhat messy first – this helps to follow the shockingly harsh struggle this tragic fellow was forced to endure. His wife and children are left battling the elements and unfriendly village neighbours, as they attempt to survive by working their farm without him. Sadly, it seems the local church did little to support his unfairly ostracized family, giving poor acknowledgement of his strong Catholic faith and the family’s church service in years prior. Appears the Catholic Church shamefully colluded with the **** war machine too often. This is sad indeed. Germany was determined to take control by force but force devoid of love was bound to fail. Festivals and those who like Terrence Malick’s ‘style’ may last the way over-long distance but others may tune out early on. This is unfortunate, as it’s a story that deserves a better treatment. An effectively compiled music score helps carry it some of the way. Will please devotees or the patient.

Christopher Plummer once famously recounted of his time with Terrence Malick on the set of "The New World," "the problem with Terry, which I soon found out, is that he needs a writer. Desperately." It certainly has been a minute since we've seen Malick go the semi-traditional narrative route. Narratively experimental films like "The Tree Of Life," "Knight Of Cups" & "Song To Song" have confounded and frustrated both critics and normies alike. With "A Hidden Life," though, Malick seemingly gets back to the basics. One protagonist, one conflict, one point. Is it beautiful to look at? You bet. Is it well performed? Incredibly so. Are there things to cut? The cup runneth over. Oh, sweet God, does the cup runneth over. I'm not one to undermine the thematic potential in flux here. This is a tremendously powerful and admirable story of conviction and doing what feels right, despite what the world tells you. There are fascinating musings on God, duty and the folly of man all throughout. Typical Malick stuff. It's just that there's also so much filler here that could've been left on the cutting room floor. Establishing shots. Scenes of characters farming and performing menial tasks. Even entire arcs featuring ancillary characters could have been left to the wayside. And I get it. This is the Malick way, baby. It's how he's been doing things forever. But when we start talking about hours (literal HOURS) to trim off your runtime? C'mon, man. This is a frustrating watch to be sure, for there's so much that really does work. Yet all I can do is hear those words from Christopher Plummer echoing in my head into infinity.

"A Hidden Life" asks the question of how far you would go in your beliefs even if it means death when you have a chance to live? It is based on the true story of Austrian Franz Jagerstatter who refuses to swear his allegiance to **** though he does go when called up by the 3rd Reich for military training. He is a devoted husband and father of three girls who works side by side with his as much devoted wife on their large farm. His refusal to sign a loyalty oath takes him away from his family, farm and small town. Along with the moral questions there is also the beautiful love story between Franz and his wife Franziska plus their love and interaction with their children. The film takes place in St. Radegund, Austria, and, after the opening shots of **** and **** Germany, the camera pans over the stunning location of the town and at any minute you expect Julie Andrews to come out and sing "The Sound of Music" which is one the things that sabotages the film all the way through. Director/screenwriter Terrence Malick takes 3 hours to tell a story that could have easily been cut by an hour if he eliminated all the repetition of most scenes. He shows the hard work of working a farm from cutting, gathering hay, digging for the vegetables, planting potatoes not only once but each scene is repeated at least 3 times. Yes a river changes constantly and Malick makes sure we see that along with many shots inside the local church's beautiful paintings. He, also, fails to get into Franz's mind and why he believed so strongly to be the only man in the village who feels the way he does to the depths he does. There are bits and pieces spoken from the bible and he was a devout Catholic but how come he was the only one in the village? His love for his wife and children appears to be as strong as his love for his religion but it is never explained. August Diehl as Franz and Franziska by Valerie Pachner are beautifully matched and their love is shown in many big and little ways and she accepts the pain caused by her husband not only to them, their kids but also his mother and Franziska's sister. Is religion harder to explain than love? Is religion harder to show than love? The fact that we don't know what motivates the man to make his decisions and follow through with them, hurting many including those he loves being ostracized by all around them is the main and a big failure of the director/screenwriter! "The Hidden Life" is a good example of more is not necessarily better!

This movie is 3hrs long. You get literally 15 minutes of dialog in 3 long hours. For almost the entire time it has excruciatingly slow sweeping views of mountains, waterfalls, clouds, churches, sheering sheep, wheat fields, chores being performed etc. The cinematography is nice and what acting that exists here is quite good. Thing is there is really no movie to speak of. Imagine if you took the first 20 minutes of Quest For Fire and extended it out to 3 hours. That is what A Hidden Life is.