Terrence
Malick’s new film ‘A Hidden Life’ tells the story of a man who made the
ultimate choice
"A Hidden
Life," set to premiere in theaters on December 13, 2019, depicts the life
of an Austrian farmer who refused to fight for the Nazis in World War II.
By Christian Caryl
The Washington Post
/ Dec. 9, 2019
Andrei Sakharov
could have stuck with the privileged existence of Soviet scientist. Mahatma
Gandhi could have opted for the quietly prosperous life of a British-educated
lawyer. Malala Yousafzai could have contented herself with the certainties of
the traditional role of a Pakistani woman.
Yet all three of
these exceptional individuals chose to follow their principles, instead — at
great personal cost. Though they gained fame as a result, that wasn’t in the
cards when they started out. All of them faced persecution. Sakharov endured
official vilification and banishment. Gandhi spent repeated stints in prison
and died at the hand of an assassin. Yousafzai has persevered despite vicious
harassment and constant threats to her personal security (including a 2012
shooting that nearly took her life).
Franz
Jägerstätter was born into life as a simple farmer in an idyllic corner of the
Austrian Alps. He, too, could have taken the easy way out — the path of
accommodation chosen by almost everyone around him. Yet he found himself
compelled to reject the criminal regime that descended upon his country in
1938, when it was absorbed into Nazi Germany. His Catholic faith, as he
understood it, forbade him to accept allegiance to Adolf Hitler.
Terrence
Malick’s beautiful new film, “A Hidden Life,” vividly depicts this terrible
dilemma. Drafted into the German military, Jägerstätter refused to take the
required oath to Hitler. At first he paid for this act of disobedience with
prison; in 1943, he was executed for it, leaving his widow and their three
daughters to a life of poverty and ostracism.
Almost no one in
the world — outside of his community, the remote and tiny village of Sankt
Radegund — noted his sacrifice at the time. Yet Malick’s film shows why his
example continues to resonate. (Jägerstätter was beatified by the Catholic
Church in 2007.)
In material
terms, Jägerstätter (magnificently portrayed in the film by August Diehl)
gained nothing by his stubborn rejection of the ruling system. For years he and
his young wife (played by the equally marvelous Valerie Pachner) lived a happy
and idyllic life in a beautiful place — just the sort of life, in fact,
idealized by Nazi propaganda, which liked to depict mountain peasants as the
noblest kind of German. (Malick deftly interweaves his shots of glorious
Austrian scenery with contemporaneous film footage, including shots of Hitler’s
Bavarian mountain retreat at Berchtesgaden, not that far from Franz’s village.)
On the face of
things, Jägerstätter’s decision to refuse his allegiance to the regime is
almost inexplicable. Almost everyone around him is Catholic, too, but none of
them see fit to follow his example. Some of his neighbors agree with him, but
only in whispers. Women who have sent their own husbands to fight in the war
throw rocks at his kids. The village’s Nazi mayor accuses Franz of betraying
the memory of his father, who died for the Fatherland in World War I. Still
others point out that he’s visiting catastrophe on his own family, including
his elderly mother.
There is no
apparent upside to Jägerstätter’s stubborn act of resistance. Celebrity is not
even remotely in the offing. He saves no one, least of all himself.
Hollywood likes
to make films about Nazis because they’re the ultimate bad guys. In
“Schindler’s List” (an undeniably great movie), the hero’s decision to save
innocent lives is grounded in the unavoidable confrontation with Jewish
suffering: the ghetto and the concentration camp are right there in front of
him. There can be no mistaking the evil, even if the film acknowledges that
resolving to combat it requires an act of heroism.
Malick’s film
takes a different and more confounding tack. Nazism comes to Franz’s world in
the form of distant rumors, newsreel images projected on a bedsheet or the
sound of unseen planes flying above the clouds. There are no Jews or Communists
around in the village to dramatize the effects of Hitler’s ideology on its
victims. Yet Jägerstätter still manages to recognize its sinfulness.
During my career
as a journalist, in various places around the world, I’ve been privileged to
meet people who felt called to fight injustice. I’ve always been fascinated by
the conundrum they present: Why do these rare individuals make the choices they
do at such a high price to themselves or their loved ones? Why do they follow
causes that directly contradict their own material interests? Why do they
reject the comfortable path?
Malick’s film
contains at least one obvious nod to our modern-day politics of xenophobia,
when his Nazi mayor rails about the “foreigners” swarming over European
streets. We may be comforted that we can spot the darkness behind the
sentiment. But society doesn’t always make our choices clear, especially when
the consequences can include death or torture or the destruction of your
family. Our noble ideals — derived from faith or passionate political views —
don’t always lead us to noble conclusions.
“A Hidden Life”
challenges us to confront the problem. Not all of us can follow the example of
a Franz Jägerstätter — or a Sakharov, or a Gandhi, or a Yousafzai. But no one
who pretends to have a conscience should be able to ignore them.
© Copyright 1996-2016
The Washington Post Company
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center,
325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email:
mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the
subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to
gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and
everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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