I’m really the wrong person to be making fun of Terrence Malick or even discussing the director in general.
I haven’t watched one of his movies since 1998’s The Thin Red Line, a pretty raw look at the Marines on Guadalcanal that had the unfortunate luck of being released the same year as Saving Private Ryan.
I tried to give The New World a chance but it became a ponderous, non-linear slog. I imagine his recent movies, each with ever more obscure titles, are much the same.
However, A Hidden Life looks to have a more traditional approach:
This trailer is beautifully shot and the movie itself seems to have a coherent, if somewhat existential, story. It definitely puts Nazi Germany and World War II in a much different perspective than we are used to seeing on screen.
What is the answer? I say you give a good “Heil, Hitler!”, go home to your family and hope to survive the war.
What would you do?
