Silence

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.

With regards to Martin Scorsese's SILENCE, let me just put it this way, I saw Scorsese's 1988's "The Last Temptation Of Christ," back when I was in college, as you know that film was also an adaptation, and I thought it was pure masterpiece just in terms of its themes because whether or not you'd want to argue that perhaps that some of the approach may have been sacrilegious or religiously inconsiderate, if you will, to me it was about wondering the what if's and whether or not doubt has any footing in order for faith to grow. To a certain extent, SILENCE conveys something similar.

Based on Shusaku Endo's novel, SILENCE is about two Jesuit missionaries who travel to Japan because they have heard that their mentor, Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson) has publicly denounced God. At the time, Christianity was outlawed in Japan, so in their search for their missing mentor, they endure torture, suffering, and the ultimate test of faith.

In a way you could say that SILENCE is Martin Scorsese's way of paying respect to the legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa especially for us fans who grew up watching old time Japan's samurai classics, although SILENCE is not action-driven obviously, but the authoritarian rule depicted in this film is definitely something that's culturally based on that particular era.

From technical standpoint, SILENCE is as rich and complex as the story itself, even the violence is done in a graphic yet artistic manner. Because the story is told through Andrew Garfield's Father Rodrigues' perspective, you'll find some of the shots from inside his prison cell, looking out, with the frame being in between the wooden bars, to be quite engrossing. It makes the tension all the more real because your mind just keeps racing, you don't know how much more gruesome it would get. Odd to say this but it sort of becomes a point of anticipation, it's as if every other half-hour or so, you know some Christians are going to get tortured and so you're just bracing for impact. Martin Scorsese's ever-so-reliable high standard quality filmmaking is present through and through, so there's no disappointing you there.

After being religious and full of conviction in "Hacksaw Ridge" as a Seventh-Day Adventist, actor Andrew Garfield becomes religious and full of conviction again, this time in "Silence" and what's interesting is that both films feature Japanese people. All that aside, this is yet another evidence of Garfield's commitment to his work, the same goes for Adam Driver and Liam Neeson who not only went through physical changes, you actually feel a bit concerned for their health, but that conviction is shown in their eyes. It's amazing to see how this former Spider-Man quickly this powerful force. The Japanese actors are equally outstanding, especially Issey Ogata whose performance has his own flamboyant way of being ruthless.

This is Scorsese's long passion project, he had been wanting to do this film for years, but the question remains, and those of you who've watched the film are probably wondering it as well. And my answer is no, I don't think SILENCE means to demonize Buddhism. If this film is Scorsese's way of promoting Christianity, then that is his prerogative. But throughout mankind's history, there had been many cases in many lands where the majority religion, whatever religion that maybe, persecutes the minority religion because they view them as a dangerous threat; a symbol of a potential takeover. Inquisitions have happened everywhere. Which leads me back to what I said earlier about how SILENCE reminds me a lot of "The Last Temptation Of Christ," we see men who are supposed to be like rocks, seemingly falter and start to question their faith, but perhaps questioning your faith is one way of reaffirming it. Liam Neeson's character in this film has a counter argument to Andrew Garfield's Rodrigues and he may make a bit of sense if you see it from his version of truth.

-- Rama's Screen --

This was Martin Scorsese's passion project. The reason he waited so long was because he didn't feel like he was ready. But when he finally made it, it bombed. Silence is a deconstruction and an examination of faith and spirituality. It's long, patient, quiet, slow. Thus, by the end of the film you will be exhausted. Andrew Garfield gives one his best performances, watching his soul gradually crumble was nothing short of heartbreaking. Adam Driver and Liam Neeson were great as well. Silence is a film not to be played as background noise. It's very hard to watch at points. But if your patient and committed to view it in it's entirety, you'll find something immensely rewarding. Silence is Scorsese's most underrated film, as well as one of the most underrated films of the 21st century.

It begins with a cacophonous medley of environmental sounds, such as crickets chirping, before cutting to absolute silence and the title. And then to a shot of severed heads. Perhaps this is Scorsese adding in some of his signature bits of artistic representations and violence. But what follows is an excruciating exercise in repetition, as faith is tested again and again for nearly three hours, with a relentlessness better reserved for succinct motifs, not heavy-handed, protracted lessons on religious dogmata.

"There's little peace for us now." The progress of spreading Christianity in Japan has been halted by persecution and destruction. The remaining padres have - along with their followers - been brutally murdered. Some even ask to be tortured to demonstrate their faith in God, but the end result is the same.

When a letter reaches Father Valignano (Ciaran Hinds), purporting that one of the strongest of all priests, Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson), has apostatized and taken up a Japanese wife, two young padres refuse to accept such an unequivocal falsity. Resolute in clearing his name, they determine to make the hazardous journey to Japan to find out the truth about Ferreira's whereabouts. Father Garrpe (Adam Driver) and Father Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) were directly under his tutelage, and so procure a Japanese man, Kichijiro (Yosuke Kubozuka), living in Macao, to aid in their smuggling onto the island.

By 1640, Garrpe and Rodrigues are the last two priests to witness the aftermath of the 20 years of Jesuit persecution in Japan. They make their way to the tiny village of Tomogi before moving on to Goto, where remnants of Christian believers still secretly practice their faith. They must hide during the day and hold mass in the dead of night, always in fear of being found out by the Inquisitor (Issei Ogata), an elderly, somewhat comical man charged with seeking out and eradicating the perceived threat of Christianity.

"Silence" does exhibit stellar performances, especially when it comes to exceptional courage through unshakeable beliefs (Driver being far more convincing than Garfield, in appearance and speech). There are also opportunities for contrasts and fluctuations in adherence to such religious principles, particularly with Kichijiro, who comes to represent many of the failed ideologies mistranslated or misunderstood in proliferating a system so fundamentally alien to many of the formerly Buddhist inhabitants. Doubt also creeps in, as Garrpe grows impatient and Rodrigues questions the illusory habits of a deity that unexplainably remains absent in the most anguishing of times. The two priests, along with most of the villagers, are desperate for tangible signs of faith - signs that occasionally become more valuable than faith itself.

In this perpetual search for validation and proof of God's omniscience, there are numerous sequences of profound conviction, made more striking by the increasing pitifulness of the survivors and the escalation of tortures inflicted on those who refuse to renounce the invading religion. But, correspondingly, in this indulgent, overlong epic of potent morals, where the individualization of religious implications routinely trumps the bigger picture (along the lines of the infuriating yet purposeful justifications seen in "A Man for All Seasons"), there's fleeting entertainment value to be found. It's a historical lecture more than a moving examination of theological unity or human weakness, and surely a plodding series of reiterations on shaping spirituality through pain and fear. It's not quite the "priestsploitation" nonsense that it could have been, but it's nevertheless redundant, light on engaging drama, heavy on physical and psychological trials, and sparse on monumental ideas. Particularly with its finale, "Silence" attempts to think for the audience, so that they don't have to strain to uncover subtle genuineness; religious viewers will certainly interpret various sequences to a greater (or different) degree than those without perspectives comparable to the characters on screen.

• The Massie Twins

'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.