A Hidden Life (2019)

Film Postscript Postscripts Epilogue Text Before Credits Do The Right Thing Barry Lyndon
Credit: C/O

Terrence Malick’s latest is a three-hour march to the executioner’s chair for protagonist Franz Jägerstätter (played with conviction by August Diehl). Jägerstätter is a simple but noble farmer, whose steadfast refusal to swear an oath to Hitler comes at great expense to him and everyone he loves.

The closing postscript is a line from George Eliot’s novel Middlemarch. If A Hidden Life‘s long lead up to this fateful endnote isn’t enough to induce waterworks in you as a viewer, then this closing line (which reveals the title’s origins) should push you over.

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