The Tree of Life, The Hidden Life: Terrence Malik moves from Job to Jesus

 In ‘The Tree of Life’ a young man is killed in Vietnam. Uninvited suffering rumbling in the undergrowth of most people’s memories. It raises an accusatory eye towards the Creator. Malik answers us with God’s famous question to Job: ‘Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?’. He then lets his camera unwrap some of the answer to that question. For more on ‘The Tree Of Life’ see here: Tree of Life

 In ‘The Hidden Life’ the suffering is sharper – because it can be rejected. Franz Jaggerstatter, the Austrian farmer, called up to serve in the army, simply has to say an oath to Hitler who is the head of the armed forces. It would be the work of less than ten seconds. He could keep his fingers crossed behind his back. Nobody needed to know what he thought in his heart.

If Franz says the oath, nothing will happen. If he does not say the oath, the inevitable suffering will happen. It's his choice. Malik has moved from Job to Jesus, from suffering that comes to us uninvited, to suffering deliberately chosen.

We soon know that Franz has set his face towards his Jerusalem, but all the time Malik, from many different angles, is asking us whether his choice is worth it, even morally correct. In a masterful way Malik especially brings out the intensity of suffering Franz’s decision pours on others. Again and again we see the strain etched on the face of his wife. We also have the echo from the Nunc Dimittis, ‘a sword will pierce through your own heart also’, as we are taken close up to the pain experienced by Franz’s mother.

We have the voices of seeming reason, from the priest, the bishop, the lawyer, all urging conformity. We even have a Pontius Pilate scene when the judge in Berlin invites Franz in for a private meeting. Malik knows his Bible well, especially the Gospel of John. The writer of the Gospel draws on the irony of Pilate sitting on the judge’s seat to unjustly judge the Judge. So here the judge (played by the late Bruno Granz, Hitler in ‘Downfall’), sits in the chair that Franz sat in, and looks at his hands. As in the Gospel, so here – who is judging whom?

The answer as to whether the suffering was worth it is certainly not in the execution. Here there is only fear. No heavenly peace. No angels. We just see his shaking hands before Franz is led away.

There was though something of an answer in the prison in Berlin, before the execution. Franz is told by his lawyer, ‘Just sign here, and you will be free.’ To which Franz replies, ‘But I am free.’ He was right. He was free – free to act as he thought was right, which meant refusing to make a promise to Adolf Hitler, refusing to give this murderous tyrant his personal support. Yes, he would stay imprisoned and he would die. But he would die a free man. That is a reward. What if he had signed? He would have had to act against his conscience fighting for Hitler, and who knows, he could easily have been killed, so dying anyway - but with a stained conscience.

 And there is a richer answer back in Franz’s village where he and his family had been ostracised. At the time of his execution someone goes to the church which Franz used to clean. The man pulls the rope, we see the bell swinging. An image of death by hanging, but respect and recognition at last from his own people, and the sound in the chimes speaking of a better world.

 Then the camera sweeps up to the mountains and the skies. The unbeliever says Franz’s death was in vain, a pointless sacrifice. The believer – with Malik – says, ‘No, there is meaning in sacrificial suffering for there is another chapter to this story’.

 There is indeed. The film is a ‘Calvary Road’, but at the end we are reminded of the empty tomb and the life to come.

 For a full and brilliant review, see here: Robert Ebert