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After his masterpiece "The Tree of Life" Malick's subsequent movies ("To the Wonder", "Knight of Cups", and "Song to Song") struck me that he was working through some internal struggles on how to present enigmatic material, with each of the three movies successively making more and more demands on the viewer. For me Malick can do almost do no wrong, but "Song to Song" was too esoteric for me. So, I was delighted to see him return to a more accessible presentation in "A Hidden Life." In this movie he has perfected many of his trademarks: brilliant cinematography, haunting score, moral questions, bucolic scenery contrasted with harsh realities, the use of a Steadicam, natural lighting, flowing water, and so forth.

The story is easily summarized: a young Austrian farmer, Franz Jägerstätter, resists serving in WWII. When I first read about this storyline it seemed like an odd choice for Malick, but very early on you can see that the moral implications of the story would attract him. I found this to be the most overtly religious of the nine Malick movies I have seen. Bergman would have appreciated this movie.

I like the way Malick films people, usually people in motion. He can make following a person walking interesting. His cuts from the current time frame to one several seconds later are effective. Also the camera is usually in motion, moving around and in and out. The effect is that of a lived experience. I have never seen the filming of children at play more captivating--moments of joy in an otherwise heavy film.

I have never been able to quite figure out Malick's fascination with water. There are several cuts to images of rivers, ditches, falling water here. For me they serve as a clearing of the palate between scenes. But maybe as a symbol of the eternal river of life? There is even a water wheel thrown in for good measure. Maybe there is nothing to figure out beyond absorbing the images and the mood they create.

I had never seen August Diehl (as Franz) nor Valerie Pachner (as Franz's wife Fani). They were up to the task, being able to express emotion by way of facial expression. All of the less prominent characters gave quality performances. I was particularly impressed with Karin Neuhäuser who plays Franz's mother. I found the scenes between Franz and his mother moving.

Franz felt that he could not participate in Germany's war effort, on moral grounds, in particular he could not pledge allegiance to Hitler. If this had not been based on a true story I would have had trouble with Franz's unshakable conviction, given that he had a family and suffered contumely from his community. As might be expected the Nazi's were not having any part of Franz's behavior. Over and over people argued with Franz about why he was behaving so adamantly, voicing the sentiment, "No-one will know." Even the Catholic priests and bishops urged him to back off and the townspeople shunned him and accused him of being a traitor. From the image I have of the Nazis I would have expected them to just shoot Franz and have done with it, but no, he was ultimately represented at a trial. Maybe the Nazis did not want his case to be a cause celebre? I think of the many people I knew who fled to Canada to escape the Vietnam war, but I remember one guy who simply said, "I'm not going," and went to prison for a year and got out with his dignity intact. His act precipitated many of the behaviors depicted in this movie, except certain death was not part of the equation.

As in most Malick movies the score is an essential ingredient. The score here is his usual mixture of original music (composed here by James Newton Howard) and known classical pieces. Parts of Gorecki's 3rd symphony are a perfect fit for some scenes and using work of Arvo Part is a natural for this movie. All of the music accentuates a spiritual yearning or questioning which I surmise is essential to Malick as a person.

Malick not only directed this, he wrote the screenplay. Though not heavy on dialog or narration, there were some quotes I liked: "Better to suffer injustice than to do it."; "What do you do if you believe your leaders are evil?"; "If God gives us free will, then we are responsible for what we do and for what we fail to do."

I was left with an appreciation of how much thought went into the presentation of each scene.