By Thomas Puhr
Austrian farmer Franz Jägerstätter (a steadfast August Diehl) is imprisoned and executed for refusing to swear loyalty to Hitler. Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life (2019) captures this true story with the reverent awe it deserves, and the writer-director’s visuals are as gorgeous as ever (though their impact is blunted by repetition). As has often been the case with latter-day Malick, A Hidden Life is simply too long: a good three-hour film that could have been a great two-hour one. I can’t help but wonder what Badlands-era Malick (or at least a more discerning editor) could have done with this material.
Austrian farmer Franz Jägerstätter (a steadfast August Diehl) is imprisoned and executed for refusing to swear loyalty to Hitler. Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life (2019) captures this true story with the reverent awe it deserves, and the writer-director’s visuals are as gorgeous as ever (though their impact is blunted by repetition). As has often been the case with latter-day Malick, A Hidden Life is simply too long: a good three-hour film that could have been a great two-hour one. I can’t help but wonder what Badlands-era Malick (or at least a more discerning editor) could have done with this material.
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