<h4>This article contains some spoilers, so please read with caution. </h4>
If you had watched Terrence Malik's "The Hidden Life" half a year ago, although this is already the most understandable of Malik's recent works from the plot point of view, coupled with more than three hours and a considerable stream of consciousness narrative technique, it is probably difficult to have a strong sense of substitution for the true story that has happened in history.
But what happened in the first three months of 2020 was in a state of shock almost every day, with a new infectious disease spreading around the globe in a dramatic way, economic activity nearly stalling, and everyone being told to stay at home as much as possible for safety. At the same point in time that this year's Cannes Film Festival was also announced to be postponed, it happened to see this work that was shortlisted for the main competition in Cannes last year, and the picturesque scenery in the film brought a little comfort, and more importantly, the Austrian Franz Jaggersted used his life to explain what is called loyalty to faith and loyalty to life.
The story of the film is based on real people in history, after Nazi Germany triggered World War II, the Austrian farmer Franz Jaggersted was forced to leave his hometown to join the army, but when he saw the extremes of the german army's cruelty, he felt that this was not the righteous teacher he had in mind, on the contrary, those acts were completely contrary to his beliefs, so he refused to serve and resolutely returned to his hometown to continue farming.
During World War II, Germany provided protection for Austria due to their historical ties, at the expense of a large number of Austrian men who had to be called into the army to fight for Germany. In the "care" of the powerful military power of the Nazi German army, most Austrians have become accustomed to nazi propaganda offensives and some evil deeds, and Franz Jaggersted and his family in such an environment, such "rebellious" behavior has naturally become an "outlier" in the countryside, and during the period of refusing to serve back to the hometown, he has been constantly met with resistance and insults from his fellow villagers, and he is regarded as a "traitor" by the villagers and the township chief.
From winter to spring, as the front line was tight due to the continuous expansion of Germany, the recruitment situation in Austria became once again grim, and Franz Jaggersted received the recruitment notice again, facing a choice in the days of depression and worry. In order to avoid the involvement of his family, the forced Franz Jaggersted came to the barracks for the second time, and when he was faced with the need to swear allegiance to Hitler, he refused to take the oath again due to his faith in goodness and yearning for spiritual freedom, which led directly to his imprisonment until he was sentenced to death by the Third Reich military tribunal.
If you look at the story alone, such a plot is easy to be filmed by Hollywood as a "tear gas" effect, and the male protagonist's intertwined inner entanglements of faith, conscience and stubbornness are also very easy to move, not to mention the beauty of love beyond life and death. And all this in Malik's shots have become extremely calm and restrained, there is no frame by frame to calculate, the three-hour long film has left a lot of time to the beautiful scenery of the Austrian mountains, especially when Franz in prison reads the letters to his wife, the director will always let the camera constantly switch between the prison environment and the mountains and rivers, a tragic but poignant mood is constantly magnified by this great contrast, until finally the audience and the heroine erupt together on the verdant grass.
This is in fact a kind of temptation and torture, such a beautiful scenery and beloved family is there, obviously as long as you swear allegiance and go to the battlefield to do some unnecessary work to wait for the end of the war can go home, why be so persistent in the so-called faith and goodness, put everyone in a desperate situation. This is not only the torture of Franz by the scene at that time, but also the film asks the same question to every audience, if we are in that situation, what choice would we make? There is no standard answer to such a question, and there is no "homework" to copy, but at least it is not difficult for us to see the struggle in Franz's heart, he is not indomitable, he is also hesitant and hesitant, the price of loyalty to the self is so great, do you really have to insist, where is the meaning of this persistence.
Malik, who has been jokingly called "the Great Immortal" by some fans, has actually been asking various questions and questioning various "meanings" in recent works, "Tree of Life" is looking for the meaning of life and history, "To Wonderland" tries to explore the eternity of love, and "The Knight of the Holy Grail" is asking and examining the truth of the life of a drunken gold fan.
Adapted from the real story of "The Hidden Life", it is more like a continuation of the anti-war theme of Malik's Berlin Golden Bear Award-winning work "Thin Red Line", in the equally poetic scenery of "Thin Red Line", a team of American infantry soldiers plunge into the battlefield of the South Pacific, and the director also uses the subjective stream of consciousness and inner monologue of soldiers to allude to the truest humanity in war. In this World War II movie, which does not see war scenes throughout, the story depicts a different "soldier" who refuses to follow the tide of nazi rule and joins the battle, but instead obeys and follows the firm faith, and his conscience makes him brave to face death without flinching.
Essentially, "The Hidden Life" shows a model of how individuals can fight against the powerful, and when they are tried after the war, many of them will mention that they directly or indirectly served the Nazis either out of fear of the Nazis or because they were unaware of the evil deeds. But much of the material afterwards showed that many people were not as simple as they said, and that the soldiers guarding the concentration camps would not see the Jews who had died tragically. Or, as shown in the classic American drama "Company of Brothers", the ordinary German residents of those small towns are just pretending to be deaf and dumb to the concentration camps not far away.
Arendt calls such cruelty "The Banality of Evil"—a crime of thoughtlessness and responsibility under an ideological machine. An evil that eliminates one's own thoughts, unconditional obedience to orders, and renounces the right to personal value judgments. In fact, many things do not need to be summed up by philosophers after the fact, as a person with moral consciousness and value judgments, there are too many things that we can distinguish between good and evil through intuitive experience, the simplest is not to deprive ordinary people of life under any circumstances, or to sympathize with those who are suffering and help as much as possible. These judgments do not require much complex thinking and a high level of intellectual knowledge, but are simply based on one's nature.
In the course of two months, we have also witnessed so much suffering, some of which could have been avoided, if only one or two voices had been heard by more people in the first place. Some people have already given their lives for this, and some people are struggling to scream, no matter what, we should remember those who are loyal to the goodness in their hearts at some point.
As George Eliot says at the end of the film, "The goodness of the world grows, in part by unheard of deeds." And the reason why things around you and I are not so bad is half due to those who do not seek fame but only to live faithfully, and no one mourns after death. ”
Referral Index: Highly recommended.