Review of Silence (2017) by T I — 29 Jan 2017

I read the book by Endo a few years ago, so I kind of knew what I was getting into when I went to see Silence today...or so I thought. I had forgotten just how heavy a story it is. It starts in a dark place and just seems to get darker and darker as the story progresses. There is no resolution in the end, no victory, not even a moral one. There is just the residue of a tragic life lived in the service of Mother church in circumstances so hostile they escape the imagination.

Silence is a work of fiction based on history. It tells the story of two young priests in the mid 1600's in search of their mentor who has reportedly apostatized, married and taken a Japanese name. It parallels the early Edo Period in Japan, 20 years after the persecution of the Church began in which as many as 300,000 believers were executed for their faith.

This movie is extremely well made. Scorsese put his heart and soul into it from start to finish. It remindes me of Schindler's List, not just because of the presence of Liam Neeson, but because of the enormity of the tragedy it chronicles. I left the theater satisfied with the story telling yet empty from the story itself. The human cost, both in blood and sanity, is just so staggering, the depth of emotion unfathomable. It reaches such a level of helplessness that hope is utterly lost. You begin to realize early that it will not end well, that it cannot end well.

If you leave the theater NOT contemplating your existence on the Earth, I would doubt you have an iota of humanity in you.

On a technical note, the score is a masterpiece. I'll say no more on that. You just have to experience it. (Hint: Schindler's List leaves out color, save the little girl in the red dress. Silence leaves out something else...).

Though Silence is not for children, every other person on the planet, with some preparation, should see it. I believe it is THAT important.

It may be a fictional story, but Silence will make history.