I have a big love-hate relationship with any new Terrence Malick film. When Malick's good, he's excellent. The Thin Red Line is by far his best. But when Malick's not good, he can give spectacular imagery with not much narrative. Much like his recent projects such as The Tree Of Life, To The Wonder, Knight Of Cups and Song To Song.
While those can be a slog to get through, they are completely gorgeous to look at. That's all thanks to his regular cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki. They are perfect film to have on in the background with the sound off during a classy party of some kind. Whether you think that's a good thing or not is up to you.
This time, Malick doesn't have Lubezki this time. Instead we have Jorg Widmer, who is usually seen as a camera operator instead of head of cinematography.
Firstly, the transition felt seamless as it definitely had the look of a Malick film. With his latest film set in the hills of Austria, you have the most amazing backdrop to work with and virtually every shot looked like something I would have on my wall.
As for the story, this clearly has a narrative and is by far his most cohesive since The New World back in 2005. With it being based on true events certainly helps giving Malick some plot to work with.
Malick's style of storytelling is still there. That sense of being between awake and dreaming is still there and it can be quite a spiritual experience.
While I was enjoying what I was seeing from all aspects, the almost 3hrs duration did pull back my enjoyment.
It's was definitely too long and many sequences was enough to tell me that this should be closer to 2hrs.
The performances on the whole were pretty good. It was great seeing August Diehl again after only seeing him play a memorable minor role in Inglourious Basterds. He played the lead with a lot of believability and you can feel the risk his character was taking in order to stand up what he believes in.
His female counterpart played by Valerie Pachner have a wonderful performance for Diehl to bounce off. But in the end, I think it was her scenes without Diehl that made her stand out more.
Not much to say outside of the leads. But it was nice to see Matthias Schoenaerts make a small cameo.
It was to not only an enjoyable Terrence Malick film, but I'm confident that this will be loved by many.
His imagery still remains for me one of the strongest in the film industry and seeing the Austrian hills and mountains on the big screen was a feast for the eyes. Plus, the story was well executed and gave us a nice refreshing look at a World War II film from the enemies perspective.
Unfortunately as mentioned before, the over-long duration is preventing me from giving this an exceptional rating. Not only could I feel the length, it was clear to see what could have been taken out.
But personal preferences aside, I can see this film affecting people in a very powerful way.
Rating: 7/10
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