Directed By Terrence Malick

Starring – August Diehl, Valerie Pachner, Maria Simon

The Plot – Based on real events, the film tells the story of an unsung hero, Bl. Franz Jägerstätter (Diehl), who refused to fight for the Nazis in World War II. When the Austrian peasant farmer is faced with the threat of execution for treason, it is his unwavering faith and his love for his wife, Fani (Pachner), and children that keeps his spirit alive.

Rated PG-13 for thematic material including violent images.

POSITIVES

– Haunting musical score. James Newton Howard has once again composed a series of ominously riveting selections that exceptionally outline the tragedy of this family’s truly dire situation. The volume capacity is brilliant without ever needing to inflate on the integrity of the scene, or encroach on the talents of the cast, and the metaphorical meaning behind certain instruments elaborates at a bigger picture taking place than the typical moviegoer can accurately pick up on. In particular, it’s Howard’s use of the lone violin during scenes between Franz and Fani that illustrates the compact connection between them, which in turn constructs the magical chemistry that has audiences swooning throughout the picture. The rest of the instrumentals as well are full of sorrowful resolve that accurately maintains the tonal consistency of the picture throughout its ambitious run time, cementing this bond between he and Malick that makes it a necessity that they work together exclusively in future projects.

– Alluring photography. What else did you expect from a visual master like Malick than a combination of scintillating shot compositions and uniqueness in machinery that makes “A Hidden Life” feel visually unlike anything else playing right now. Malick uses a digital Red Epic Dragon camera system for its ability to handle stark contrasts within a scene, which in turn preserves details in both the highlights and shadows of the image, while still maintaining realistic color saturation. This promotes a rich vibrancy to the visual tapestry that alludes to Franz own personal heaven within his home village, and seduces us consistently with inspiring landscape depictions that stretch as far as the eyes can see. Finally, Malick’s desire for a mostly natural lighting scheme of scene illumination at times transcends this as a movie, and leads to some challenging methods of shooting that establish Terrence as one of the very best still doing his thing after fifty years helming films.

– Immersive sound mixing. Aside from Malick’s visual presentation, which springs to our eyes in a near three-dimensional aesthetic, the production done on the sound design for the film is equally entrancing at establishing geographical pulse constantly. At any given scene in the film, the sounds of birds, wind blowing, and surrounding characters can be heard talking, granting a quality of authenticity for environmental influences that would otherwise be underutilized in a lesser directed picture. These elements not only capture the complete picture of what’s being depicted visually, but they also illustrate an immersing level of storytelling that allows you to close your eyes and accurately distinguish where each scene is taking place. The work capitalizes on every technical measurement possible within a film, and does so while conjuring the environment to feel like a character within the film.

– Refreshing direction. For a film that takes place during World War II, this is anything but a war film. What it is at its core, is a romance story that establishes tenderness within its two leads when the world surrounding them seems to be falling apart. This not only gives the connection between the two leads a love for the ages, but also crafts the most realistic of Romeo and Juliet approaches to grace the silver screen in quite sometime. What’s appealing is the tragedy that keeps them apart, but more than that it’s the easily accessible side of injustice that makes you fight for them every bit as much as you do invest in their tender connection. There isn’t a single scene of war showed anywhere in the film, proving that Malick’s desire to craft a story where love should conquer all between two people is drawn out to have a big stakes feel simultaneously with what’s transpiring with this evil Nazi entity.

– Originality. Even after nearly eighty years of World War II films, the ability to still craft a narrative that is originally provocative to its audience grants “A Hidden Life” must-watch appeal. This is daring in a sense that the script alludes that not all Nazi’s were the same evil reign of terror that is depicted in historical documents, but rather a minority from within being a group of men who were forced against their will to do things that they didn’t support. This clashing of ideals and moral fiber is compelling when you consider the alternative to it being Franz’s jaded disposition. There’s clearly a bigger picture taking shape within this world that grows more distant from our own with each passing day, and Malick chooses to focus it on the unrelated victims in those smaller countries and towns that were nothing more than a statistic in an evil plan. This broke unity by testing the human spirit beyond remorse, and for this protagonist, condemned him for remaining true against something he so obviously didn’t believe in. He’s clearly the sane one in this narrative, yet the influence of evil weighs so heavily on the people he once trusted, and outlines the single worst double edged sword that could possibly be imagined.

– Meaningful narration. Anyone who knows me knows that I detest pointless narration capabilities, which often only repeat what is clearly present in the film. It’s usually used an assist when a studio doesn’t have faith in the intelligence of their audience, but once in a while can be a necessity in what transpires. Enter “A Hidden Life”, with a protagonist with such minimal dialogue throughout the film. What the narration does is not only capture the mentality behind everything that he is going through, but also conveys to us the interaction between he and Fani when they are countries apart. Without this element of storytelling, much of the internal themes and psychology of its characters would become abstract, and that would truly be dangerous in an arthouse film that doesn’t meander its audience with exposition at any point. It’s a clever device that magnifies what is brewing beneath, and grants us the ability to be the moderator between sides that no other supporting character are privy to.

– Ideal casting choices. Malick’s decision to make this a relatively unknown foreign cast accomplishes many positives that add to the integrity of the story. For one, it’s the obvious of these two leads being an authentic property of their Austrian setting. This allows their accents and knowledge of the culture to transpire on-screen for the entirety of the picture, but beyond that their likenesses doesn’t distract or take away from the story at hand. This makes their lack of notoriety amazing for the story, as to where A-listers nearly ruined Malick’s last film, “Song To Song”. As far as depth goes, Diehl and Pachner both resonate an air of dramatic balance, which rolls through the highs and lows of their respective adversities. For Diehl’s Franz, his physical decay and suffering works cohesively with the stream of tears that flow endlessly from his expressive eyes. For Pachner’s Fani, it’s the heart instilled by an air of anguish that she feels from being shun by her neighbors. She’s looked at as a stain on this otherwise peaceful village, and turns on the heavy empathy for her character when she’s facing a world that demands her to change.

NEGATIVES

– Too long. There’s a great benefit to this being the first film for Malick since 2005 with a linear narrative, but the negative side to his brand of storytelling peaks the same old demons that often alienate audiences from his brand of art. More than anything, it’s films that are an unwarranted length of time to tell a story that doesn’t require it, that are the culprit. “A Hidden Life” is Malick’s longest film to date, at 169 minutes. It’s an overstuffed vacuum bag of prolonged and repeated scenes that add up particularly tall during the grounded pivotal third act, and reminds us that artistic vibrancy can only take you so far in a story this convoluted. My second negative will elaborate further on this, but for my money two hours would be more than enough to tell the same narrative, and not lose anything for the dramatic cut that should be supplanted to this script. Malick’s next should just be directed by him, instead of written, because sometimes his air of pretentiousness gets the best of him on when to quit.

– Three act pacing. This is the least important of my problems, but definitely something that could’ve used tweaking to enhance the tragic aspect of the tone even further. The first act rushes by far too quickly, particularly in our time with Franz and Fani together, which undercuts its importance on what’s to follow it. With more time between them and this element of being home and happy with Franz, the more the violent shift will level our investment of the characters. That’s not to say that I didn’t feel emotionally exhausted by what transpires, but rather my draining could’ve reached frustrating levels if the proper time was spent showing the contrast in the heaven that Franz doesn’t want to leave.

– Rubbing editing. Another element to Malick’s unique direction is the merging style of editing that features these abrupt time shifts within the context of the scene that sometimes over-complicate what is necessary. It’s not as obvious in this film, as the choppy consistency definitely feels more reserved this time, but the scenes involving face-to-face exposition between two characters overlaps audio and distorts the scene to feeling still even longer than it’s actually supposed to be. Editing is typically used to shorten to the most important bits of dialogue and physical interaction, but everything being depicted here still feels like a series of long-winded diatribes that stretch these scenes and their influential editing all the more straining. On top of this, the editing seems to take away from the importance of the scene when it matters the most visually, never lining up the visual and audible capacities seamlessly enough in a way that cohesively compliments the other.

My Grade: 7/10 or B-