{"id":154648,"date":"2020-02-24T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2020-02-24T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=154648"},"modified":"2020-02-20T08:57:18","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T08:57:18","slug":"painting-a-true-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/02\/painting-a-true-christ\/","title":{"rendered":"Painting a True Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Review of Terrence Malick\u2019s Film \u201c<\/em>A Hidden Life\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>19 Feb 2020 – <\/em>There\u2019s an early scene in Terrence Malick\u2019s masterful new film \u2013 what I would call a moving painting \u2013 where the central character Franz J\u00e4gerst\u00e4tter, an Austrian peasant farmer from an isolated small mountainous village who refuses to take an oath to Hitler and fight in the German army, is talking to an older man who is restoring paintings in the local Catholic church.<\/p>\n

Franz, a devout Roman Catholic, is deeply disturbed by the rise of Hitler and the thought of participating in his immoral killing machine.<\/p>\n

The older man tells Franz \u2013 who has already been admonished that he has a duty to defend the fatherland (homeland) \u2013 that he makes his living painting pretty holy pictures for the culturally conditioned parishioners for whom God and country are synonymous.\u00a0 He says.<\/p>\n

I paint their comfortable Christ with a halo over his head.\u00a0 We love him, that\u2019s enough.\u00a0 Someday I\u2019ll paint a true Christ.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Malick\u2019s \u201csomeday\u201d has arrived with \u201cA Hidden Life,\u201d where the older Malick shows the younger Malick \u2013 and us \u2013 a moving picture of what experience has taught him is the complex essence of a true and simple Christ: out of love of God and all human beings to refuse to kill.<\/p>\n

To watch this film is to undergo a profound experience, an experiment with truth and non-violence, a three-hour trial (Latin: experimentum<\/em> \u2013 trial).<\/p>\n

While Franz is eventually put on trial by the German government, it is we as viewers who must judge ourselves and ask how guilty or innocent are we for supporting or resisting the immoral killing machine of our own country now.\u00a0 Hitler and his Nazis were then, but we are faced with what Martin Luther King called \u201cthe fierce urgency of now.\u201d\u00a0 Many Americans surely ask with Franz, \u201cWhat has happened to the country that we love?\u201d\u00a0 But how many look in the mirror and ask, \u201cAm I a guilty bystander or an active supporter of the United States\u2019 immoral and illegal wars all around the world that have been going on for so many years under presidents of both parties and have no end?\u00a0 Do I support the new cold war with its push for nuclear war with its first strike policy?\u00a0 Do I support, by my silence, a nuclear holocaust?\u201d<\/p>\n

I say that \u201cA Hidden Life\u201d is a moving painting because its form and content cannot be separated.\u00a0 A true artist, Malick realizes that what non-artists call form or style is the content; they are one.\u00a0 The essence of the story is in the telling; in a film in the showing.<\/p>\n

The cinematography by J\u00f6rg Widmer, a longtime Malick collaborator, is therefore key.\u00a0 It is exquisitely beautiful as he paints with swiftly moving light the mountains and streams of the Austrian countryside, even as the storm clouds with their thunder and lightning roll in across the mountains. The ever-recurring dramatic scenes of numinous nature and the focus on the sustaining earth from which our food comes and to which we all return and in which Franz, his wife Fani, and their young daughters romp and roll and plant and harvest and dirty their hands is the ground beneath our feet, and when we look, we see its marriage to the sky, the clouds, the light, the shadows, which in their iridescent interplay of light and darkness beseech us to interrogate our existence and ask with Franz what is right and what is wrong and what is our purpose on this beautiful earth.<\/p>\n

That question is especially focused when between the beauty comes the terror in the form of interspersed documentary footage of Hitler, his fanatical followers, and horrifying scenes of war and violence.<\/p>\n

Like the movie, I think you would agree that we are always moving, asking, wondering, if we are not the living dead. All is now, and now is nevermore, as it disappears into the darkness behind us. The light is always pointing into the future, so we can see where we are going.\u00a0 We don\u2019t look at the light but by the light, as the great South African preacher, Alan Storey, puts it.\u00a0 But what is our light?<\/p>\n

Where, asked Nietzsche, was the lightning before it flashed?\u00a0 To which the answer comes: it wasn\u2019t.\u00a0 It is its flashing. Only a doing, an act, just like love, not a thing but action. \u00a0Just like the word God, the\u03ccs <\/em>in Greek, which has no vocative sense, as Roberto Calasso has pointed out in Literature and the Gods<\/em>. \u201cThe\u03ccs <\/em>has a predictive function: it describes something that happens<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 God is a verb; God is happening.\u00a0 God is happening when humans are happening, acting.\u00a0 Only then.\u00a0 \u201cWhat you do (or don\u2019t) speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say,\u201d was the way Emerson phrased it.<\/p>\n

The filmic interplay between Franz\u2019s agonized moral dilemma, his action, and the embodiment of Christ in the natural world, the body of Christ (Corpus Christi<\/em>, not the erstwhile American nuclear submarine by that name), is its genius, one that might be lost on one impatient for action and garrulous dialogue.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Hidden Life\u201d is far from Hollywood. Silence and natural beauty permeate it, as if to say the only way to grasp the mechanized and conscienceless brutality of Hitler or today\u2019s killers and grasp why some resist it, is to enter a contemplative space where the love of the incarnated world awakens our consciences to our responsibility to our sisters and brothers everywhere.<\/p>\n

For in the silences one can also hear the screams of the millions of innocent victims beseeching us to heed their cries and intercede.<\/p>\n

Malick shows us that the \u201ctrue Christ\u201d must be experienced as all of creation.\u00a0 No divisions.\u00a0 We must feel this in our flesh and blood, as does the rather inarticulate Franz, who speaks very little.\u00a0 His silence, however, and the marvelous acting of August Diehl, speak volumes.\u00a0 Valerie Pachner, as his supportive wife Fani, is gripping in every sense of the word, as Franz and Fani grip and grasp and hold each other in a fierce struggle to stay united in the face of the evil forces that threaten to separate them.<\/p>\n

It tore me apart to watch their struggle, and I left the theater shaking.<\/p>\n

In one of his marvelous essays, \u201cA Kind of Sharing,\u201d John Berger, writing about painting, said,<\/p>\n

The act of faith consisted of believing that the visible contained hidden secrets, that to study the visible was to learn something more than could be seen in a glance.\u00a0 Thus paintings were there to reveal a presence behind an appearance.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This could be Malick\u2019s motto, his faith.\u00a0 Or perhaps \u201cto reveal a presence that is the appearance.\u201d\u00a0 The body is the soul.\u00a0 We are the world.<\/p>\n

When I was young and in the U.S. Marines, seeking release as a conscientious objector, I read a book by Gordon Zahn, a sociologist and Catholic peace activist, called In Solitary Witness.<\/em> It was the book that first brought Franz J\u00e4gerst\u00e4tter to the world\u2019s attention.\u00a0 I found it deeply inspiring to learn about someone else who felt alone in his spiritual decision to refuse to fight in war.<\/p>\n

Unlike Franz, who had been a wild motorcycle-riding young man prone to fighting, I had tried to be an upstanding, Jesuit-educated, patriotic, Irish-Catholic boy.\u00a0 Tried but didn\u2019t completely succeed.\u00a0 I prided myself on my toughness and sensitivity.\u00a0 Don\u2019t laugh.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that uncommon.\u00a0 We are often strangers to ourselves, complicated creatures, even the worst among us open to redemptive change.<\/p>\n

But as I said then and say now, war is another matter. I felt it in my soul, as Franz clearly did, even if all he could say was, \u201cI have this feeling inside me that I can\u2019t do what I believe is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

War is a racket, as Marine Major General Smedley Butler put it. It is waged for the tyrannical oligarchs and always kills mostly civilians.\u00a0 Over ninety percent now, probably more.\u00a0 Innocent people.\u00a0 War is immoral.\u00a0 It is not complex.\u00a0 It is simple.\u00a0 Like the gospel message.\u00a0 J\u00e4gerst\u00e4tter grasped that long ago and paid the price.<\/p>\n

I paid no price since I was released from the Marines to \u201ctake final vows in a religious order,\u201d which was a complete lie, something I had never mentioned or considered but which allowed them to get rid of me.\u00a0 But I vividly remember the spiritual sustenance I got from Franz\u2019s witness as I awaited the ruling, for I was unequivocally determined to go to prison before ever donning the uniform again. I got off easy and still feel guilty that I pocketed their lie and went my merry way.\u00a0 Watching \u201cA Hidden Life\u201d reminded me of my cowardice.<\/p>\n

Despite feeling \u201che had no one to turn to,\u201d despite being urged \u201cto say the oath and think what you want,\u201d despite the advice of family and Bishop to compromise, despite the animosity of the villagers toward him and his family, despite being alone with his conscience, Franz remained faithful to his soul\u2019s promptings. He lived forward by the light.<\/p>\n

Malick shows us the anguish that was involved in his decision, the agony for him and his wife, who, ironically, seems to have been instrumental when they married in his spiritual awakening and whose suffering is palpable as she supports his decision to the end.\u00a0 It is not easy to watch.\u00a0 Aside from Franz, who remains steadfast throughout all the abuse and suffering that he undergoes when jailed by the Nazis, the viewer is not fed a simple story of good against evil but instead is invited to examine one\u2019s own life, to ask what would one have done, to wonder whether Franz was right or wrong to subject his family to such suffering.<\/p>\n

Even the humanity of the Nazi judge is shown when he privately tries to dissuade Franz from not signing the oath, telling him that no one will ever know of his sacrifice, that \u201cthe world will go on as before\u201d and \u201csomeone else will take your place.\u201d\u00a0 We see the torment on this man\u2019s face and in his harrowed hands when he is left alone after Franz tells him simply that \u201cI don\u2019t know everything\u201d but \u201cI can\u2019t do what I believe is wrong,\u201d despite knowing the consequences, and Franz is taken off to his solitary witness and his death.<\/p>\n

The viewer is left to interpret the meaning of it all.\u00a0 Afterwards, we hear Fani says that \u201cthe time will come when we\u2019ll know what all this means.\u201d<\/p>\n

Has that time come?<\/p>\n

In 2007 the Catholic Church declared J\u00e4gerst\u00e4tter a martyr and beatified him.\u00a0 The irony of making a saint out of a man whose spiritual witness was opposed by the institutional church authorities cannot be lost on a thinking person.\u00a0 Long dead, safely in his grave, a monument can be erected to his memory.<\/p>\n

Or is it a monument erected to the church itself, the church whose silence was in those days deafening?<\/p>\n

When I was leaving the theater with the seven other attendees, a man engaged me in conversation.\u00a0 I asked him what he thought of the movie.\u00a0 He said only that \u201cit was beautiful.\u201d\u00a0 I was startled and had no response, but I thought of Rilke\u2019s words about beauty from the Duino Elegies:<\/em><\/p>\n

For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, which we still are just able to endure, and we are so awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cA Hidden Life\u201d is like that.<\/p>\n

Near the end we see Franz and a group of prisoners sitting on a bench awaiting their turns to be beheaded by the executioner in a black coat and bowler hat.\u00a0 A man just doing his job, a bored look on his face, loping off heads one by one, anxious to get the mornings work done and get to lunch.\u00a0 The terror on the victims\u2019 faces is palpable.\u00a0 I felt sick.\u00a0 While some prisoners struggled as they were led into the shed that housed the guillotine, Franz walked calmly in.\u00a0 Malik spares the viewer the details.\u00a0 All we are shown is the aftermath \u2013 a floor awash in blood.\u00a0 And as I recall, the light streaming in a high-up window.<\/p>\n

Always the light to show us the way.<\/p>\n

__________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Edward Curtin is a writer whose work has appeared widely. He is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>. Website: <\/em>Behind the Curtain<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 edwardcurtin.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Review of Terrence Malick\u2019s Film \u201cA Hidden Life\u201d- Franz, a devout Roman Catholic, is deeply disturbed by the rise of Hitler and the thought of participating in his immoral killing machine. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":154650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[870],"class_list":["post-154648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}