Movieguide® says that Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life is a truly great, inspirational story of Christian courage. In a video review, Dr. Ted Baehr explains, “It’s set in Austria just at the beginning of World War II. They live in a pastoral beautiful place. They thought that their valley in Austria would never be reached. It’s based on a true story and the man, Franz, is a very committed Christian. His wife is very Christian. And he gets recruited for a year into the army because Hitler is recruiting everybody. He’s destroying Europe. [Franz] realizes that as a Christian he cannot support Hitler. He refuses to take a loyalty oath to Hitler.”
Baehr says the film is a masterpiece of cinematography and acting.
“It’s a very powerful story of a man who’s living for his faith,” he says. “It’s got a tremendous amount of Christian content, a great amount of talking about the Holy Spirit guiding you, and it’s one of the most encouraging stories. It’s one of those many hidden stories of World War II of people who stood for the gospel in the midst of oppression.”
Watch the full video review here.