Silence

Chris

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")

source: Silence

In brief, this movie to ENDURE, not ENJOY. It is just WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY. TOO. LONG. Three hours of relentless torture, persecution, despair, poverty, brutality, murder, betrayal, and then more of the same, was just too much, and Scorsese really should have made a 60 minute documentary rather than a movie. Yes, there are moments of lightness (two, we counted), and a brief sequence of hope and purposes where one of the padres felt like he was making a difference to the bleak poverty of the lives of Japanese villagers. Other than that, this movie is one inevitable, ghastly, slow slide to apostasy. On occasions, Mr Scorsese, I want my movies to give hope, humour, courage and good things, and your movie gave none of those. I had high hopes for this: Neeson, Garfield and Scorsese made it an attractive proposition. However, an hour into the movie and I was ready to leave. The plot was muddy and laborious, and Scorsese insisted on showing us short imagistic fragments that led nowhere. Two last gripes. Firstly, the idea that medieval rural Japanese villagers would be able to speak English (or Portuguese as the narrative language) is ridiculous. Secondly, why oh why did Scorsese make us sit through the credits before the house lights came on? A few more minutes of tedium? Whatever you wanted, it didn't work. It gets 2/10 for the cinematography and nothing else. Unless you are a fan of medieval Japanese torture and murder techniques, don't both watching this. Some movies stay with you for days, weeks, months, a lifetime. This one you will want to forget asap and move quickly to something more edifying.

What was Martin Scorsese thinking? Is he trying to set a record for the longest time to bore an audience? It used to mean something when someone said "it's a Martin Scorsese film". Does this now mean it's long and boring? How can anyone who invested 2 hrs and 41 min not say this was way to long and could have gotten the message across in a comfortable say.. 1 hour? Such a waste of talent. No big story here, the summary accounts for the almost 3 gruelling hours of boredom with no real message, although the one I did get made this even more of a time-waster. How can this be rated so high? Is society that bored and have that much time to waste on non-entertainment? Save yourself, you've read the summary, you're better off moving onto another movie.

I have seen this movie three times by now and still think it is brilliant, yet it's not a movie for everybody. It is surely no coincidence that even Martin Scorsese had to struggle for 25 years to scrape together the funds to make it. I can also understand why so many folks feel the movie is boring and too long even if to me it was neither boring nor too long. In fact, it feels just right. The reason I suppose many people do not truly 'feel' this movie -which takes up an unusual position in Mr Scorsese's rich filmography- is because of its theme. For surely, in times of abundant secularism and reductionist materialism, a movie such as this one cannot be else than a fossil. Essentially this is a movie about transcending implicit narcissism into an effulgence of humble, selfless Love. It is therefore a movie about the genuine path of authentic christianity. What makes it a special movie, at least in my heart, is that it not only sharply portrays this process of self-transcendence but also makes the link to the collective missionary adolescence of historical christianity. For surely, the Japanese are refined in their cruelty, yet at the same time they clearly are much more sane and of a deeper (personal and cultural) wisdom as are young missionaries who remain by and large unaware of the unwarranted cultural superiority with which they approach the Japanese. To bring all of this clearly into focus and allow for the story to reach its spiritual and historical apogee took close to three hours of masterful movie-making. Not to make this an overly long review: for those who are knowledgeable about the genuine (christian) path of self-transcendence into humbled Love, this is surely a masterful film. For others it is a boring waste of time. Those who love this movie may also be interested in "The Assassin" by Hsiao-hsien Hou. This movie brings to the screen the taoist version of the same inner path of transcending attachment to emotions and social identity to arrive at ultimate immersion in the Tao or the natural way.

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")

Wow, I would be lying if I said that I wasn't silenced after watching this film. Really interesting subject matter. I am curious about the book now. When I first heard about the film I thought it looked like a modern "Andrei Rublev" set in Japan. Well, I was wrong about that. This film is very much its own beast. These are my first impressions right after seeing it. I didn't know much about the history of the Jesuit priests who traveled all the way to Japan. I did know that some Japanese converted to Christianity, but I didn't know there were that many. So, I was very surprised by that. It does explain a lot though. I understand more of the reasons why a civil war started in Japan that would ultimately lead to any foreigner being banned from the country. It's actually very interesting how the Japanese Christians almost feel more faithful than a lot of the European characters. This film explores both the beauty and the horrors of humans and their faiths. There are many beautiful calm scenes where you can relax and admire the stunning sets and locations. Then there are many scenes that will make you nervous, emotional and horrified because of the cruel punishments that some people must endure. Religion is an interesting subject matter and everyone has their own different view and opinion on it. I still haven't finished processing this film yet, but I'll tell you this; it's something that will stay on your mind for a while. It makes you think about a lot of things. Like what's right and wrong about the different views brought up in the film? And how would things have been different if everyone would have accepted each others beliefs? And even if they didn't believe in the same thing, could they all still live in peace? It's not an action packed adventure, but more of a spiritual journey with exploration about morals, history and so much more. I thought it was wonderful, but do see it if you can and judge for yourself.

I was expecting an Epic on the level of "Shogun" and got a lecture on the rejection of Christianity in feudal Japan which was shallow and unexplained . The subject matter of Japan in the 1600's as Japan is introduced to Western Culture and Christianity is ripe for an in depth and detailed portrait of the clash between Bushido and Western thought, and is well documented- elsewhere. I was expecting a more detailed study of the resistance to Christianity by Japanese culture of the time to preserve the order of Bushido. Nowhere in the film are the traditional concepts of Bushido and Budhism represented in the film, except for implicitly. The movie seemed to force the viewer to the conclusion that Christianity was the best thing for Japan without explaining how Christianity was in-congruent with Japanese Culture and Social Structure of the time. I began to wonder, are the beliefs implied by this movie born out empirically? A quick survey of Modern Japan today says no. Despite all the strife of the Christian Missionaries in "Silence", a mere 1% of Japanese are Christian today. Apparently the writers overlooked core Japanese culture in the making of this movie. A more pertinent theme would take place in the Modern Middle East where massive numbers of Christians are being murdered in the modern world and ignored by the Media. The case of a few Missionaries in Japan back in the 1600's is intriguing only if we study and compare the influences of Bushido and Christianity to the Social/Political normalities of the time. The 1980's Mini Series Shogun delivered this and far more drama than you'll ever find in "Silence".

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.