This is the third thoughtful response I have received by email to my original post on Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life”. I post it here with the author’s permission:
As the conversation continues, another wise one in my life has responded by email to the first response I received to Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life” – First Impressions. With permission, here is another insightful contribution to this conversation.
After I posted my “First Impressions” of Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life” I received a response by email that was too good to leave hidden in my In-Box. So, with the author’s permission, here is a really thoughtful comment on Malick’s film:
I am sitting in a small independent cinema that normally seats two hundred patrons. There are nineteen people scattered around the theatre; I know sixteen of them.
For the past twenty-five years, I have met early every Wednesday morning with a group of a dozen or so men. Over the years there has been some coming and going in our membership; but a few of us have been together the entire time. And, for the most part, attendance has been remarkably consistent.
For anyone who has the opportunity to view Terrence Malick’s film, “A Hidden Life”, here are a few of the many questions you might find arising.
Eight months ago, our local University Cinema (https://www.cinecenta.com/) had scheduled a showing of Terrence Malick’s new three hour film, “A Hidden Life”. There was no chance of seeing this film anywhere else. No major theatre would carry such an unwieldy offering. And I knew it would be unavailable on DVD for a long time; it is still unavailable for purchase.
I started at the beginning of COVID lockdown on 23 March 2020. Now six months and 176 posts later I have come to the end of my ruminations on “The Gospel of John”.
20:18 Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” 19 (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.)
20:13 Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish.
