Review of Silence (2017) by Lisa S — 15 Jan 2017

This is a very special movie - special in that it has great merit, but it is so monomanical in its story that one has to be very committed - either to the films of Scorsese, or to questions of faith (or other higher values) under extreme conflict, to be able to sit through it.

Seventeenth century Japan is undergoing an anti-Christian inquisition in which people of faith are being killed and tortured in an effort to preserve religious and cultural unity. Two young Jesuit priests learn that their mentor is rumored to have become apostate. Disbelieving, they insist on being dispatched from Portugal to Japan to investigate. On arriving, they encounter the Inquisition - in painful detail - and must hide from and ultimately confront it.

I expected the story to take a surprising reversal in the middle but this never happens. The basic themes established early on are never derailed, and instead play out and escalate for nearly the entire two and a half hour length. There is a lot of individual death and torture which never lets up- although Scorsese handles in a manner which is explicit without being revolting. It all bears down on one of the priests who must continually ask himself what is the proper cost one should be willing to pay in service to being steadfast to your beliefs.

The movie takes the question seriously - very seriously - and although I'm not a Christian, I still found myself able to empathize with the characters, both at the times I was sympathetic to their stand and when I firmly disagreed. It engaged me and haunted me.

However, just as these Jesuits must pay a price for their beliefs, there is a certain price in enduring the film in return for the spiritual and philosophical payoff - and whether the journey is worth the cost will be a matter of taste.