Sunday, May 3, 2020

100 Words on Terrence Malick's A Hidden Life (2019)



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.