Review of Silence (2017) by Doreen S — 07 Jan 2017

It is 2017 and Martin Scorsese starts the year with a bang. Or rather with Silence. I am usually not one to make predictions but if that movie doesn't get an Oscar nod then I don't know what will.

Never have I seen a movie theatre full with people turn absolutely still. Nobody moved. Nobody breathed. Something akin to an electric current ran through me. The silence in the room when the pivotal scene came up was absolute. To experience anything like this is an incredible feeling and an homage to the director.

Andrew Garfield was never an actor I paid much attention to in the past. In Silence he gave an outstanding performance. He incidentally also plays in Hacksaw Ridge, a role for which he got nominated for a Golden Globe. That movie is on my watch list and at last it will soon be released in Ireland. I am very much looking forward to seeing it.

The Mission.

Two Jesuit priests learn that their mentor Father Cristóvão Ferreira, who is living in Japan to spread the word of God, denounced his faith and committed apostasy. We are shown the torture of his followers by the Japanese in Nagasaki. The story is set in the 1630s and 1640s, when Japan is trying to root out all foreign influences in religion and Christians in the country are killed by the tens of thousands.

Father Sebastião Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Father Francisco Garupe (Adam Driver) feel in their hearts that God needs their help. Despite the danger that awaits them they head out to Japan to find Father Ferreira and see if the allegations are true. They are committed to continue the missionary work in a country that has become so dangerous for Christians.

Upon their arrival they are found by some villagers who follow the Christian faith in secret. Hidden from the inquisitors during the day, the two priests come out at night to perform church services, hear confessions and baptise the people. They give hope to the villagers and give them strength to continue with their faith in the face of great peril.

Keeping the faith.

The two priests are forced to witness the torture and prosecution of the villagers. Only their faith helps them through those dark times. Eventually though they are captured. Father Garupe is killed and Father Rodrigues finds that the harder he prays the less answers he gets from God. God has become silent. In this silence he struggles to come to term with what he witnesses barely holding on to his believes.

Until he meets Father Ferreira. As it turns out the rumours were correct. Father Ferreira is now studying at a Buddhist temple and has a Japanese wife and family. How will Father Rodrigues cope with this new revelation?

Final Thoughts.

As someone who does not and never has subscribed to any kind of religion I don't understand this kind of faith or the willingness to kill and die for something as abstract as a deity. To me it is quite horific to see what people are willing to do to other beings in order to force their own ways and believes upon each other. I watched Silence days ago but I really struggled with putting all of this into words on short notice.

Belief and faith or not, even to me the struggles that Father Rodrigues went through seem so real. I can certainly appreciate the emotional conflict he went through having to see his fellow Christians being tortured and killed. To watch this being done to another being must provoke some reaction in anyone. Andrew Garfield's performance is just incredible. His grief, his doubts, his brush with insanity. It is all so real.

Martin Scorsese's vision for this film has famously had about 25 years time to develop and the end result really shows the passion he put into the movie. Silence certainly opened the new movie year in a spectacular fashion.