A Hidden Life (2019)

I had long wanted to see a film of Terrence Malick's on the big screen and 'A Hidden Life' is just beautiful. The man has a supreme visual sense, however his characters internal lives come off at a slight remove, I could never connect with them to the extent that I wanted to which left the emotional experience of the film a little wanting from what I had hopped, this is a story you observe more then you experience. Though perhaps here that is appropriate given that the stories central figure the Austrian farmer Franz Jägerstätter (August Diehl, strong, understated) was seemingly a mystery to most of his contemporaries. The film omits and simplifies many of the details of Jägerstätter's life, I found out later that he apparently rather sowed his wild oats as a young man, but after marrying Franziska (Valerie Pachner, also good, low key) he became a man of deep spiritual conviction. Franz could never brook the Nazi's, he couldn't even go through the motions, which earned him and by extension his young family the ire of their small community. Jägerstätter managed to hold out in passive resistance until he was finally drafted in early 1943, he would not serve, he would not pledge loyalty to Hitler, and in the end they executed him for it.

Jägerstätter's life remained a largely hidden one for decades, but his widow saved most of their correspondence and eventually the story got out. Books were published, conferences held, a documentary and an Austrian TV movie were made. In 2007 Franz Jägerstätter was named a martyr of the Catholic Church by Pope Benedict XVI and beatified. Franz Jägerstätter was vindicated, but his story remains a distressingly relevant one. What separated this man from the rest of his community, and a religious community at that, who with but a very few exceptions simply went along with the Nazi's? There is a sequence in this film were an artesian visits the village to touch up some of the frescos in the Church. Franz is helping him out, assisting with ladders and such, and they converse. The artisan states that he paints "the comfortable Christ" who the parishioners in the pews like to think they would have stood up for, been loyal to. However they do not really understand the true radicalness of his message, even the artesian says he does not understand it, but adds one day he hopes to.

It has become cliché to say that all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing, Franz Jägerstätter did something, to the extent that he was able, and still evil triumphed, at least for a time. He knew that his sacrifice would not change the course of the war, that outside of a very small circle perhaps no one would ever hear about it. His death would leave his wife and children without his love and support. Still he thought it was a sacrifice he needed to make, because there is right and wrong and Franz Jägerstätter could not do the wrong that was being asked of him. 'A Hidden Life' is the story of that exceptional kind of person who can rise above personal interest and the will of the crowed and take a moral stand regardless of what it may cost. Few of us will ever be capable of this, but we should all admire it. ***1/2