A REVIEW OF Hidden Life
Released 17 JANUARY
“Live by the foma [harmless untruths] that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.”
-The Book of Bokonon-
This is the epigraph that author Kurt Vonnegut uses to launch his 1963 masterpiece ‘Cat’s Cradle’, hooked to the fictional religion of Bokonism. Terrence Malick is a Christian rather than a Bokonist, yet the faith he explores in A Hidden Life bears more relation to foma than the more dogmatic dictates of organised religion. This is a film about a man’s unwavering faith enabling him to rebel against the forces of evil, so it’s important to try to understand exactly what type of faith is being upheld.
A searcher’s energy expressed through earnest philosophical voiceovers has been a trope of his work ever since his first film, . It’s an energy cranked up during what is known among fans and detractors in 2011. This was the point at which Malick stopped using scripts, allowing his actors to roam free in baffled awe under the enormity of creation. represents a return to a more narratively-contained mode of storytelling, a dash of Phase 1 holding the spirit of Phase 2 in place, as he takes one idea and pursues it through to its conclusion. The idea is: What if your country demanded that you swear an oath of allegiance to Hitler and you refused?
