“…for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.” – George Eliot

God Malick gives us all agony and no ecstacy in his pedagogic telling of a World War II conscientious objector whose family was persecuted because he refused to “Heil, Hitler” or pass out personal items to Nazi soldiers asking for him to share in the war effort. Malick barrages us with his haywire montages, his restless camera and impressionistic cuts; he also repeats his messages endlessly because he doubts we are more than children and that we will not understand.

If I didn’t know any better I’d say Malick made the film to comment that we live in a very stupid world trapped by xenophobia and banded together in groupthink, but I’d like to suppose it’s more likely Malick made it because he wants us to know about a true life virtuous Austrian man who denounced Hitler when everybody else in his village was afraid to defy conformity (see above quotation that is used at the end titles). The over-cutting, which turns dialogue exchanges into montage form that’s bad trademark Malick, keeps us though on the outside of the characters.

Malick has a great gift and has in the past demonstrated that he has the wisdom of an altruistic God. But he now berates us and punishes us with an excessive just-under three hour running time. A Hidden Life is hell to sit through, but there are a toss of two dozen moments that I’m at least glad I absorbed. Now that Malick has wrapped up this project he’s in his off time I’d guess immersed in painting classes, or takes afternoon walks while penning poetry, or sips English tea while stirring in intellectual conversations with his closest confidants. But on the basis of this film, I cannot help but worry though that Malick is a misanthrope who is turning into the God Complex of Tommy Lee Jones in “Ad Astra.” His personal connectiveness with his audience is becoming unreachable.

With August Diehl as Franz Jägerstätter, Valerie Pachner as his wife Franziska, and Bruno Ganz in his final role as a judge.

174 Minutes. Rated R.

Film Cousins: “The Sound of Music” (1965); “The Garden of Finzi-Continsis” (Italy, 1970); “Sophie Scholl: The Final Days” (2005, Germany); “Defiance” (2009).