![]() ![]() There are fair criticisms here that Franz’s struggle is presented in an abstract, over-esthetic fashion: Malick’s script, drawn from Jägerstätter’s letters, doesn’t tell us much about Jägerstätter’s passionate Catholicism, offers little historical and political context and never specifically mentions the persecution of Jews.Īt the same time, Malick’s film isn’t exactly about counting angels on a pin-head: It’s also bluntly challenging to our own time in a period of resurgent race-based nationalism and demagoguery. But it’s also consistent with a streak of airy nature-worship in Malick’s films, going back to Days of Heaven, which reached a kitschy nadir in the compassionate dinosaur episode in The Tree of Life. Theologically, this is about immanence, the doctrine that the divine is manifested in the material world. In contrast, Franz’s inspiration here is not the example of Christ suffering on the cross, but the comforting memory of being in the fields with his wife and three daughters, and the fecundity of the crops and livestock, as evidence of Divine love. There have been famous movies of religious martyrs before ( Joan of Arc, Thomas Becket), of characters involved in spiritual cost-risk analysis: temporary pain and eternal life, vs immediate relief and eternal damnation. Their arguments are plausible: As one clergyman, argues, it’s all a question of judgement: God knows what’s in your heart – it doesn’t matter what your mouth says. Nothing he can do will influence the Nazi leadership or the course of the war, but his continued behavior will certainly lead to his execution and the ostracism and suffering of his family. The advocate of the common good could justify killing one person to harvest their organs to allow five others to survive. Malick’s film is about the struggle to rationalize the case for the personal morality even when it appears pointless.Ī host of practical tempters challenge him: The town’s Nazi-supporting mayor, a priest, a bishop, a lawyer – all argue that Franz is showing short-sighted pride. ![]() The drama revolves around a classic ethical schism, the ethics of the individual moral code versus the “utilitarian” or consequential ethics that focus on the greatest collective good. Each position, taken to an extreme, can lead to intolerable results: The scrupulously honest person might expose an innocent person to his murderer. Franz, humiliated and tormented in a Berlin prison, writes heartfelt letters home, read and answered by Fanziska,or “Fani”, ( Valerie Pachner) in golden scenes of farm life in the Austrian idyll. Officers and judges scream at Franz, clergymen and lawyers make arguments about the impracticality of his ideals and the danger to his family. ![]() The town’s racist mayor insists that Franz get in line. Once Franz is arrested, taken to a local jail and then transferred to Berlin, the film goes into something of a slow-moving whirlpool of repetitions and descending momentum. In contrast, archival footage of Hitler, both riding in a night motorcade and, in colour, clowning for the camera at the Nazi retreat known as Eagle’s Nest, are there for the brute historical facts. We are also immersed in sound - of water and wind, as well as the uplifting strains of Bach, Handel and Beethoven. Often shooting from waist-height, cinematographer Jörg Widmer views the characters with intimate reverence. While Franz is an almost allegorically pure figure, the film is an immediate and exalted experience. Therese of Avila’s quote that “the closer one approaches to God, the simpler one becomes.” Contemplating the options, he makes a simple decision: “We have to stand up to evil.” The farmer is played in the film by August Diehl, whose blond hair and cheekbones suggest an Aryan poster boy, but his instincts are instinctively pacifistic and loving. A married farmer who lived in an alpine Austrian village, Jägerstätter was conscripted for the beginning of the war in France and subsequently chose not to fight or swear allegiance to Hitler. ![]()
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