With A Hidden Life Malick has turned in one of his most accessible films and probably one of his best films since The Tree of Life. The film is based on a true but little known story of an Austrian farmer Franz Jägerstätter played by August Diehl who refused to fight for the Nazis in World War II. Despite the threat of execution and worse he remains steadfast in his decision to refuse to fight for what is clearly an immoral and depraved regime. One can only surmise what would be our history today if there had been enough people with the courage that Franz demonstrated who had resisted to demand that they fight for something they do not believe in.
Malick raises the same issues that he presented in his 1998 The Thin Red Line and the grotesque waste that is war. But while The Thin Red Line focused on a group of American soldiers this is the story and a meditation on the moral courage of a single man but the film poses the question of how just one man can take a moral stand that changes the moral universe.
Malick wastes no time in explaining the reasons why Franz opposes the unthinkable Nazi regime. The only thing that might need to be explained is why more Germans and Austrians did not do the same thing. Although what the film shows is the extraordinary courage and profound belief in what is morally right that Franz has in order to stand up for and ultimately die for his beliefs. We see him and his wife Fani Jägerstätter played by Valerie Panchner against the idyllic background of the Austrian countryside and the profound goodness and beauty that shape lives lived among such landscapes and so close to the moral rightness of nature and beauty speak for themselves about what has shaped the incredible moral courage that Franz demonstrates.
As usual in Malick’s films there is not a lot of dialogue. He tells his story in images and the images of great natural beauty contrasted with the ultimate ugliness of the Nazi death regime makes a statement that is eternal. A large part of the success of these images must go to DoP Jörg Widmer who worked with Emmanuel Lubezki on the Malick masterpiece The Tree of Life. This could have looked like an updated Sound of Music but the eternal beauty of the countryside under Widmer’s hand turns this into a moral statement rather than just pretty pictures.
Malick fans and new Malick fans will be won over by this film that is as profound as Tree of Life but still has a narrative storyline that makes it much more audience friendly than recent Malick films.
A Hidden Life (Germany/USA)
Directed by Terrence Malick
Cast: August Diehl, Valerie Pachner, Maria Simon, Tobias Moretti, Bruno Ganz, Matthias Schoenaerts, Karin Neuhäuser, Ulrich Matthes
