Film Review: A Hidden Life (2019)

~ beetleypete

Today I bring you a review of a film that will require 2 hours and 53 minutes of your life to watch. That’s a big ask, I know. As it is a true historical story, there are plot spoilers in the review.

From Terence Malick, the director of such wonderful films as ‘The Thin Red Line’, ‘Days Of Heaven’, and ‘Badlands’, you can be assured of spectacular widescreen cinematography that is rarely equalled. There is a welcome absence of any CGI or special effects too.

Some might describe this slow and thoughtful film as something only a ‘film buff’ might bother with, but I will try to convince you that it is a film for anyone.

This is a true story of one man’s refusal to participate in WW2. We see a family living in a remote mountainside farming community in Germany at the start of the war. A loving couple of hard-working farmers with two small daughters, helped by the wife’s sister who lives with them. The local community is religiously Catholic, and everyone helps each other when it comes to harvest time. They live a simple life, making a living from the land.

When war breaks out, Franz is required to attend military training at the barracks in the nearest town. But with the fall of France in 1940, it is decided to send the farmers home, as production of food will be important. He goes back to his family, and they resume their almost idyllic pre-war life. A year later, and there are rumours of a new call-up. Franz is not keen to go, and searches his conscience about the conduct of the war, the killing of civilians, and the destruction being wrought. However, when his papers finally arrive, he reports as required.

But when he is told to swear the Hitler Oath, he refuses. Treated roughly, and then asked again to swear the oath, he once again refuses. This has him transferred to military prison in Berlin where he joins a mixed crowd of other prisoners, some of whom are also objecting to serving in the army, while others are quite obviously mentally ill. The commandant offers him the opportunity to serve as a non-combatant, working as a medic. But as that still requires swearing the Hitler Oath, he refuses again.

What follows is brutal treatment, both physical and mental. Franz holds on to his faith to see him through, helped by the letters he writes to his wife, and her replies. Meanwhile back at the farm, his family are ostracised by the once-friendly neighbours and villagers. Nobody will help them, and they are shouted at and spat at because Franz is the only villager who has refused military service. But his wife remains completely loyal and does her best to get his case reviewed, with no success.

After two years of imprisonment, Franz is taken before a Military Tribunal. His appointed lawyer tells him he will be freed if he agrees to work as a hospital porter in a military hospital, and he will never have to be near the front line. But as this still involves taking the Hitler Oath, he once again refuses. Even the officer in charge of the tribunal appeals to him privately, to no avail.

He is sentenced to death by beheading, along with several of his fellow prisoners. Allowed one final visit from his wife, she tells him he must do what his faith tells him to do.

I have one word for this film, and that word is flawless.

The sense of period is completely authentic. Use of location photography, lighting, and editing is second to none. The acting is first class from all concerned, and it is a completely emotional experience that goes further than just ‘watching a good film’. This is enhanced by a soundtrack of classical and choral music that is never intrusive. The actors speak English most of the time, and when they are not on screen the narration is in English too. Some dialogue is in German, but there are no subtitles as the action is obvious to the viewer.

This is a film I will never forget. It brought me to tears.

It is quite simply outstanding.

41 thoughts on “Film Review: A Hidden Life (2019)”

  3. Pete I am currently downloading it based on your review…Thank you…It is a free download on UTorrent if anyone is interested( I have a spare invite as its by invitation only) I use it for all my viewing .Thanks Pete xx

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  8. Coming from you, this post is significant in other ways. Are you aware of Dietrich Bonhoeffer? I spent most of my life with the Bible as my foundation, rejecting the corporate church. One of his statements:

    “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless.
    Not to speak is to speak.
    Not to act is to act.”

    You were moved by Franz’s passive resistance; Bonhoeffer was resolute in actively resisting the Third Reich. He was imprisoned, and executed mere weeks before Germany surrendered.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCqk-vG31wI

    Matthew 10:39 “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.”

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    1. Yes, I am aware of Bonhoeffer and his story. In the 1980s, I visited Sachsenhausen concentration camp in East Germany (as it was then) and saw a memorial to another priest executed for his beliefs. Best wishes, Pete.

      ‘Michael Piaszczynski (1 November 1885 – 18 December 1940) was a Polish Catholic priest who was arrested by the Nazis and killed at Sachsenhausen concentration camp. As a martyr he was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 13 June 1999.’

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    1. He is well-known, and his name is August Diehl. The film is available to rent from Amazon US, Carolyn. You would appreciate the scenery and locations, I am certain.

      Best wishes, Pete.

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  15. Pete! This is a brilliant review worth of the brilliance of the film. I watched it in 2019 and it became the film of the year for me. I watched it twice since then. It is still THE FILM of ALL TIMES for me. Especially that my latest book, The Drau River Flows to Siberia: The Victims of Victory, has Austria (Ostmark) as one of the central backdrops.

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