Silêncio

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.

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.

In the Seventeenth Century, in Portugal, the Portuguese Jesuit priests Sebastião Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Francisco Garupe[ (Adam Driver) ask permission to Father Alessandro Valignano (Ciarán Hinds) to travel to Japan to investigate the rumors that their mentor Father Cristóvão Ferreira (Liam Neeson) had committed apostasy abandoning his Catholic faith after being tortured by the shogunate. They meet the alcoholic fisherman Kichijiro (Yosuke Kubozuka) that agrees to guide them to Japan. When they arrive at a small village, they learn that the Christians residents live hidden in caves since the Inquisitor kills any villager suspect to be Christian. Along the days, Rodrigues and Garupel propagate Catholicism among the villagers and try to find a lead to Ferreira. But when the Inquisitor arrives in the village with his men, the live of the residents and the priests will change.

"Silence" is a film directed by Martin Scorcese that shows how cruel a man can be. Based on historical facts, "Silence" show the powerful Shogunate defending their religion and culture against the European Catholicism that promises easy paradise to the suffered Japanese workers that has to work lot to pay the taxes and survive. The result is a good, but too long and tiresome film. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Silêncio" ("Silence")

'Silence' is exactly what you would expect from a Martin Scorsese film in that it is well-produced, written and shot with a strong storyline and engaging lead characters. There aren't many films that explore religion and faith as deeply as this one and there's no doubt that it is an intellectual, thought-provoking piece that Scorsese has created. It's also visually stunning - as a piece of filmmaking 'Silence' is difficult to fault.

It is, however, very easy to fault as a piece of entertainment. For all its technical merit, the truth is that this is an overly long, tediously slow and largely dull film that the average viewer will struggle to sit through. The pacing does it no favours and the near three-hour running length is excessive to say the least. It could have been condensed to closer to the two-hour mark without losing much at all from the storyline.

'Silence' is obviously more likely to appeal to those with religious/spiritual beliefs, and they would probably get a lot more out of this film than I did. A well-crafted film, but rather dull and unrewarding for the average viewer.

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.