What do we do in times of war?
Second Thoughts on Two Films
My parents are Baby Boomers. Their generation is defined by the war that preceded them, a war that reshaped the world in more ways than one. There must be hundreds of films that have been set in and around the events of World War II, some good, some not so good. Many movies, often coming out of the USA, tell the stories of soldiers who become heroes in some way, fighting on a foreign battlefield. There are other stories, sometimes the best ones, that tell the tragic pain and loss experienced by the victims of the war with a beautiful or hopeful element. Well-known and acclaimed films such as Schindler’s List, Life is Beautiful, and Ip Man would fall into this category. In recent years, I’ve noticed a couple of films that add a further twist and offer the perspective of the reluctant conscripts for the Axis powers.
A Hidden Life is a 2019 film made by Terrence Malick that tells the story of Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian farmer who refuses to fight for the Nazis in World War II. Malick is a masterful filmmaker, but truth be told, not everyone likes Malick’s films. I’d go so far as to say many people find his films unbearable due to their length, slow pacing, and hard-to-follow storytelling. Even so, I would say that A Hidden Life is more accessible and well worth seeing if you haven’t yet. The simple and straightforward story makes the film easier for viewers to connect with, but in a way that doesn’t detract from the film’s brilliance.
The story of Franz Jägerstätter is revealed in the movie's trailers, which reveal he refuses to fight for the Nazis, which leads to his subsequent persecution, imprisonment, and execution. Even knowing this plot, I was still captivated for nearly three hours as I immersed myself in the beauty and pain of the sights and sounds. The film enchants with its stunning landscapes and evocative music, revealing the beauty of everyday simple, honest labour and family life. The film doesn’t just tell a story; it immerses you in the experience of Franz's inner struggle and the external pressures he faced. The simple beauty of his life, contrasted with the immense weight of his conscience, creates a powerful experience that stays with you long after the credits roll.
There’s much that I could say about Malick’s film, and there are many great scenes that I could recount and describe what it was about them that affected me. Overall, the thing that strikes me about the story is how Franz does not appear as a hero, even as our inclinations are tuned to consider anyone standing up to the Nazis as heroes. This is understandable, and I wouldn’t fault anyone for being attracted to a figure like Dietrich Bonhoeffer for this very reason. At the same time, it seems we must be careful not to recreate history to suit our own sensibilities and collapse the moral complexities to make for comfortable entertainment.1 So Franz is not Bonhoeffer working subversively against the Nazis, and he’s not Captain von Trapp saving his family; his actions are not really helping anybody, or so it would seem at a superficial level. The judge he faces towards the movie's end says just as much.
Judge Lueben: Do you imagine that anything you do will change the course of this war? That anyone outside this court will ever hear of you? No one will be changed. The world will go on as before. Your actions may even have the opposite effect of what you intend. Someone else will take your place.
Perhaps we’re not all called to be heroes; surely, as Franz says, it’s better to suffer injustice than do it, even if it doesn’t seem like we’ll achieve anything. In the end, Franz was wise enough to listen to his wife: “Whatever you do, whatever comes, I'm with you. Always. Do what is right.”
Franz Jägerstätter: If God gives us free will, we're responsible for what we do, what we fail to do, aren't we? If our leaders are not good, if they're evil, what does one do? I want to save my life, but not through lies.
I still see a place for heroes, especially in the stories we create, but as a Millenial, it feels as though my post-modern aesthetic sensibilities appreciate a complicated hero. In contrast to the realism of the based-on-a-true-story A Hidden Life, the 2023 film Godzilla Minus One is a fantastical monster story that provides us with such a hero. Godzilla Minus One employs CGI and action sequences to create a visually stunning film, blending action with deeper themes of trauma and moral conviction. Set in postwar Japan, the story follows a former kamikaze pilot dealing with PTSD.
It may seem strange to see a kamikaze pilot as a hero. It does help that the film starts by showing you that he’s a kamikaze pilot who isn’t willing to go through with a kamikaze mission. However, he also couldn’t take action to save people when Godzilla first shows up, which sets up a key aspect of his personal redemption story. In reality, much of his redemption story is about being someone willing to help those he comes across as he returns home at the war's end. Honour, as it seems, comes more from being willing to love and share your life with others, especially those in need. A willingness to care for human life rather than consider it disposable was a primary theme of the film and was summed up well in an inspirational speech given toward the climax moment.
Come to think of it this country has treated life far too cheaply. Poorly armored tanks. Poor supply chains resulting in half of all deaths from starvation and disease. Fighter planes built without ejection seats and finally, kamikaze and suicide attacks. That's why this time I'd take pride in a citizen led effort that sacrifices no lives at all! This next battle is not one waged to the death, but a battle to live for the future.
I must admit, I was totally unprepared for what I encountered in this film. Watching Godzilla Minus One reminded me of when I first learnt about how WWII ended. As a young child, I had known about WWII, the Nazis, the bombing of Pearl Harbour, these kinds of things. Still, it wasn’t until my Year 6 class sat down to read a book called My Hiroshima that the horrendous reality of what atomic bombs can do and were employed to do in an ends-justifying-the-means fashion. It was, quite rightly, very disturbing for me as a child, and I must say it remains an open question for me about how young is the right age to introduce children to the horrendous evils present in our world and relatively recent human history; including the Holocaust and the atomic bombings from WWII. It’s to my shame that for most of my life, I have dampened down my childhood response to hearing about Hiroshima, realistically, until I read about Nagasaki just a few years ago.
As an adult, I’ve come to see my religious-spiritual affiliation as something more primary than my nationality, and it doesn’t take a commitment to pacifism to see that if Christians genuinely consider one another as brothers and sisters, they shouldn’t be killing each other in wars. For this reason, I was faced with the stark reality that there was a long history and strong presence of Christians in Nagasaki; the majority of these people died in the atomic bomb blast. The bomb, named “Fat Man”, landed just five hundred metres from the Urakami Cathedral. The pictures of the flattened house of worship and the surrounding area certainly say more than I could in a thousand words. It was confronting, taking me out of my comfortable life and back to something I didn’t want to be reminded of. But it was the truth, the truth of a darker time, but also an experience that was not so different from what many in the world still face on the ground today; something that I can’t really know because I haven’t lived it, but I can’t ignore the truth.
What we do, is just create - sympathy. We create- we create admirers. We don't create followers. Christ's life is a demand. You don't want to be reminded of it. So we don't have to see what happens to the truth. A darker time is coming - when men will be more clever. They won't fight the truth, they'll just ignore it. I paint their comfortable Christ, with a halo over his head. How can I show what I haven't lived? Someday I might have the courage to venture, not yet. Someday I'll - I'll paint the true Christ.
Ohlendorf - The Painter from A Hidden Life
I have not seen the latest Bonhoeffer film, but the reviews are mixed and suggest that the storyline is inconsistent with the Bonhoeffer of history.