Counselors on Culture: “A Hidden Life” Movie Review
“…for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.” – George Eliot
Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life stands out amongst the barrage of films that flood the culture week after week. It will not reward those that seek to watch it to simply be entertained. It instead asks those who watch to seriously engage with and reflect on the existential and religious questions it puts forth; questions about suffering and faith, particularly when you are suffering alone.
The Backstory
In my last article, I discussed how Christ desires us to grow into a character that reflects His heart; a heart of love for God and love for others. Sometimes, this love is put to the test and may come at the expense of our well-being. This was the case for Franz Jägerstätter, the main character of A Hidden Life.
Franz lived and worked as a farmer in a small, alpine Austrian village in the 1940s. The film shows him living a simple and beautiful life; his town is surrounded by mountains, waterfalls, and rolling hills of green. His days consist of work, spending time with his wife and kids, attending church, and enjoying his community.
This all gets interrupted when Franz is conscripted to fight for the Nazis and given a choice: swear total allegiance to Hitler, or be executed. As a devout catholic, Franz knows the right choice—defy the Nazis and face the consequences. But the consequences are drastic: rejection and alienation from his community, separation from his family, and the threat of losing his own life. It’s during this time when his convictions are put to the test.
Followers or Admirers?
In one moving scene depicting Franz and a church painter, the painter describes the nature of his work. The painter explains:
“I paint the tombs of the prophets. I help people look up from those pews and dream. They look up and they imagine that if they lived back in Christ’s time, they wouldn’t have done what the others did… What we do is just create sympathy. We create admirers. We don’t create followers. Christ’s life is a demand. You don’t want to be reminded of it…How can I show what I haven’t lived? Someday I might have the courage to venture out…not yet. Someday I’ll paint the true Christ.”
The painter poses a compelling question. Are we followers of Christ or just admirers? When we are stripped of earthly pleasures and comfort and faced with rejection and possibly even the threat of death, what will we do? Where will we go? Those moments, as Franz faced throughout the movie, will determine if we are admirers or real followers.
We can talk and assume all we want, as the church painter said, that we wouldn’t really fall away from Christ as his disciples did. Truthfully, I often find myself daydreaming about being in moments of suffering where I prove myself to have more strength or moral resolve than I know I actually have. What Christ wants is for our admiration to turn into a real allegiance to Him: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (Matthew 16:24, Luke 9:23).” This is the apex of love, that we follow Christ and keep his commands (2 John 1:6).
A Hidden Life’s Contemporary Implications
A Hidden Life offers many implications for the life of the viewer. In our contemporary culture, we long to be praised everywhere for our accomplishments, to be seen by as many people as possible. Indeed, there is even the desire to be showcased as a martyr; to gain some great status by being seen as someone who would sacrifice their reputation and status for the greater good.
And yet the life and death of Christ did not (culturally) gain him this higher status. They were inherently countercultural; people on the outside, Pharisees and disciples alike, considered the things he did to be foolish, such as loving the unlovable or dying on the cross. Yet, Christ nonetheless continued in his goal to reconcile God with his creation.
In a similar way, Franz did not gain anything out of his selfless acts. He was a “selfless sufferer;” he went to his grave misunderstood, hated by his community, a victim of the Nazi regime, separated from his family, and ultimately forgotten. But his conscience was clear before God and he died with that peace. Do we—do I—exhibit this kind of resolve to do what God asks of me?
A Call to Reflection
Perhaps what’s most uncomfortable about this movie is not its three-hour runtime, but rather how it asks the viewer to genuinely consider the cost of living a life with Christ (Luke 14:28). Yet, it’s not an entirely uncomfortable experience. It offers beautiful cinematography and visuals, and beyond this, A Hidden Life exemplifies the life of a real man who lived his life primarily before the Lord, committed to loving His Savior to the very end even when no one else was watching.