A good movie

To be honest, I did start to lose faith with Terrence Malick as his recent directorial efforts were increasingly underwhelming. However, since his last movie had received some solid reviews, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, it was his most straightforward movie in years which was really refreshing and promising. However, as usual with this director, the damned thing was still quite challenging though. Indeed, with almost 3 hours of running time, it was Malick's longest film and, with his typical slow and meditative directing style, it was almost a lethal mix. Anyway, Malick might be the most spiritual director I know and it might be his most spiritual movie so far. Indeed, the whole thing was basically a reflection about the soul and, if you would follow the logic of this movie, the redemption of our soul might be actually more important than our own life. However, I'm not sure if I really agree with this assessment. Indeed, WWII was a huge waste of human life, and, in my opinion, with Franz Jagerstatter, the waste was even worse. I mean, it was completely understandable that the guy refused to fight for the Nazis and to choose to rather die than taking part in this massive senseless killing machine was not only courageous but also the only moral thing to do. However, at some point, he was provided a way out and he basically died because he refused to pledge an oath to Adolf Hitler and, in this context, his choice became more dubious, at least, for me. Indeed, if all the people who tragically died back then had been given the same choice, they might have survived after all and his stubbornness felt more selfish and arrogant than really courageous. Still, even though I had some trouble to root for the guy, as usual with Terrence Malick, even if Emmanuel Lubezki was not involved, this movie was quite beautiful to look at and the guy still makes the most poetic movies out there. Anyway, to conclude, even if I wasn't really blown away, it was still a vast improvement on the previous movies delivered by Malick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in this director's work.