Silence

Silence is a difficult movie. The movie is set in Japan in the 17th century and deals with the role of Christianity at that time. From a historical point of view, it's quite interesting, especially because I haven't dealt with the subject matter shown before.

The various locations around Japan are really well chosen and staged in a contemporary way. Impressive images are shown as well. The movie also takes the necessary time to let what is shown take effect. As a consequence, the pace is correspondingly slow. On the one hand I find that good, on the other hand I miss the tension highlights. People are persecuted and tortured. This constant fear of being caught is communicated, but as a viewer you don't feel it at any time.

What I liked was the portrayal of Andrew Garfield's inner conflict. He starts to doubt God and he tries to find the right way back to God. But at the same time he doesn't want to show this doubting to the people, because they have it hard enough anyway. This whole process is well portrayed.

My main problem with the movie is that it couldn't catch me. I wasn't able to connect emotionally. It is thought-provoking and has good moments, but overall the movie was very drawn out.

Far superior to his belly flop Kundun (& less sanctimonius), Silence is a confession by Scorsese that despite working in the trenches of secular hollywood, Scorsese will one day die clutching a tiny crucifix in his palm. A must watch film which will be misunderstood by liberals and misused by conservatives, this is quite possibly Scorsese at his least pretentious.

How does it stack up against his other work? Whilst the Last Temptation was a shallow comic book adaptation of a great novel, this is a more mature rendering of the burden of faith. Is it as good as Goodfellas (still his best) - nope, but it is better than the over processed Casino, or the dead-because-it-should've-been-a-documentary Gangs of New York (which was clunky and sloppy).

Can't say enough about the cast. Excellent work that they should all be looking back with pride on for years to come.

To this day, Martin Scorsese remains my all-time favourite director, a man whose approach to cinema completely differs to others in Hollywood, his appreciation towards cinema as an art form is his finest quality in what makes him arguably the greatest film director around. With 'Silence' promoted as Scorsese's 20-year passion project, it was a film I couldn't resist seeing, the legend back behind the camera focusing on a subject not fully studied in cinema, a subject that's mostly misunderstood.

I want to start with my conclusion and go from there. 'Silence' won't be everybody's film, the same way other ambitious films like 'The Revenant' or 'The Tree of Life' weren't, however despite my respect to Scorsese's mastery and level of detail, in my own honest opinion I believe this film fell short due to the lack of insight into it's main theme and thus instead transformed into a slow and somewhat dreary tale that arguably didn't need it's near 3-hour running time to tell its tale.

Now don't get me wrong, in regards to the film's craft it is a masterpiece, the cinematography is raw and epic, the direction from Scorsese is phenomenal and the set design is gorgeous. Accompanying this are a series of fine performances, most notably from Andrew Garfield who should receive monumental praise for his role, I haven't seen such a visceral performance in years, the raw emotion is uncanny. But unfortunately the technicalities and craft can't cover up the flaws that lie in the running time and the tediously slow plot that didn't want to end.

If there's anything I can leave you with from this review to help you decide as to whether it's a worthy watch or not, let me just say this: 'Silence' isn't a piece of entertainment, it's instead an experience; and whilst a technically masterful one at that, many audience members may find themselves slowly drifting off to sleep - as my neighbour in the cinema did. It isn't really a case of liking it or disliking it, it's more a case of the adventure, and despite my partial disappointment with it, the adventure was more than worthy enough for the viewing. Scorsese is still an exquisite auteur, flaws or not.

Silence (2016)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Priests Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garupe (Adam Driver) travel to the dangerous Japan where they are looking for their mentor Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson) who is said to have turned his back on God. Ferreira was there to teach the Japanese people Christianity but soon members of Japan began killing the missionaries as well as their own people. Before long Rodrigues is questioning his faith and what power it might really have.

Martin Scorsese had been trying to get Shusaku Endo's novel made for well over twenty-years when he finally got the greenlight. Some reports stated that the directed refused to make another picture until his dream project came to be and in 2016 it was finally released. It was released to mostly positive reviews but it quickly became clear that it was a box office dud and it even managed to get shut out at Oscar time, which is something very few Scorsese movies could actually say. What's sad is that so many religious movies take the subject on without being overly serious or asking any questions and they become hits. This one here asks some really challenging questions and no one is there.

I'm not going to call SILENCE a masterpiece because I found there to be some flaws in the picture but there's no question that the direction, acting and all technical aspects are terrific. I will talk about the major flaw I had with the picture and it's during the first ninety-minutes. I honestly thought twenty of these minutes could have been edited out because I thought it took the film way too long to move forward and get to the real meat of the story, which is the Priest and Father Ferreira having a battle of wills. The film is about one questioning their own faith in brutal conditions and the final hour is where the film really sours and I can't help but think it would have been better had we gotten here a tad bit further.

With that said, there's still an extremely deep look at faith going on here and I really loved the fact that it didn't treat the subject lightly or take on that mentality that you can't question your faith. The screenplay by Scorsese an Jay Cocks really digs into both of the Priests and their view on the horrors that they are witnessing people going through in the name of Christ. I thought the film had some deeply touching moments where people must question their faith, stay true to what they believe in even when they know their lives will be taken. There are some really powerful moments scattered throughout the film and the fact that Scorsese decided not to use a music score adds to the power.

Then there are the performances, which are wonderful. Both Driver and Neeson are extremely good but so are the various supporting players. Yosuke Kubozuka and Shin'ya Tsukamoto are excellent in each scene that they're in. Then you've got Garfield who really shocked me here. This is a rather quiet role where the actor has several scenes where he's just by himself, thinking to himself and to me this is where Garfield really shined. The quiet nature to the performance means that the actor had to use his emotions and eyes and I thought he did a remarkable job.

SILENCE isn't a film that's going to appeal to a lot of people and I'm sure some will find the subject and its questioning faith to be something they won't want to sit through, which is a real shame. It's certainly a film that will take multiple viewings to do it justice but it's a unique film.

There's a reasonable argument to say that SILENCE is one of Martin Scorsese's better movies. The talk is that it was a passion project of his for decades, finally being released in all it's artistic endeavors and mysteries. I suppose someone else could argue the opposite: that this is a story full of brutality and despair without the signature style of the aged director. I think I'm falling right on the middle on this one. This is surely one of the year's most powerful stories, and yet I have to admit it left me cold.

The story follows two priests from Portugal (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver) who venture into hostile Japanese country in search of their mentor, Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson), who has abandoned his Christian faith. Some chalk it up to mere rumors. These two young ministers take the journey to find out for themselves.

What begins as a fairly traditional story ventures into the heart of Japan in the 16th Century with a sharp attention to both detail and horror. This is less a story of a search for one man as it is an odyssey into the despair found in conflicting religious beliefs. Father Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) holds hope that Ferreira is alive while also working to convert as many locals under cover of darkness. Upon landing on the shores of Japan (smuggled in on small fishing boats from China), he encounters villages of faithful Christians who worship in secret. For them, the arrival of Rodrigues and Father Garupe (Driver) is confirmation of their beliefs. Through language barriers, it seems that God is always present.

As we delve further into the country towards Nagasaki (where Ferreira is said to be held), the two priest break off on separate journeys. Rodrigues, though oftentimes alone, is shadowed by a Japanese recluse named Kichijiro, a drunk who once betrayed his faith in order to spare his life (he witnessed the execution of his entire family) but returns to the faith time again in order to make Confession and amends with the Lord. Rodrigues continues to absolve him, and yet this is the slow unraveling of an aspect of this story: do the Japanese really comprehend the religion in the same way Westerners do?

There are three people who make this movie better than average: Andrew Garfield surely gives one of the year's best performances as a man trapped in his own personal Hell, forced to grapple between martyrdom and eternal damnation. It's a strong year for Garfield, getting accolades and Oscar buzz for his other leading role in 'Hacksaw Ridge.' Trust me, this is the better performance. Second is the skill of Martin Scorsese, who slowly paints a portrait of a time long forgot with such attention to tone. It's a horrifying and at times morbid story to sit through, but there was never a moment I found myself any less than fully-focused and contemplative.

Third is a surprise, a breakthrough performance by a Japanese actor named Issey Ogata who gives without a doubt one of the year's most memorable performances. Throughout the film the Christians living in Japan are routinely inspected by samurai officials who intend to hunt down and capture any found citizens in violation of the law. One such official is Inoue Masashige (Ogata) who treats the job with a certain flair. Constantly waving a fan and with an ear to ear smile, this is a performance that steps above the rest of the cast by perfectly encapsulating the braggadocious nature of Japanese law without missing a beat. It's a winking devil performance that I hope the Oscars won't look over.

'Silence' is at times hard to palpate and yet rewards the audience for it's patience. Whether or not this film can be interpreted as being pro or anti-Catholic is maybe not the ultimate message of this film. While the final act delves into a horrifyingly-dark arena, consider the final shot before the credits begin to role (I won't spoil it). In such a brutal era with antiquated customs, isn't there still hope left to be found?