A Hidden Life

There is not a film that so successfully engages with philosophy in an accessible way to the audience while balancing a concise narrative with abstract representations of memory and faith. Very much in the same vain as his other work and Tarkovsky, Malick really does achieve something wonderful with this movie. Despite being a film about a man essentially accepting death in exchange for living how he sees is right, this film remains hopeful and beautiful. Nature is indifferent to man’s evil, the sun shines on the good and the wicked the same. This film is ever important for me as an American citizen in coming days and times. One can love their country and still be upset and astounded as to what it has become, to love the earth it sits upon but not the institutions which drive it. Maybe there will be a time in the future in which decisions like these will need to be made. Maybe they’ve already happened in my life. We like to believe that if we lived in that time, that we wouldn’t have gone along with it. It is better to suffer injustice than to commit it. What will we do when faced with this question?