Martin Scorsese's new film Silence is a brutal watch. This is a major work from one of our finest working directors. It is a film that consistently proposes and question and rarely provides any answers. It is a film one experiences then wrestles with for weeks.
This seems appropriate given the long gestation period the film had. Scorsese read the novel by Shûsaku Endô while on train headed to act in Akira Kurosawa's Dreams after the uproar following his own The Last Temptation of Christ. Scorsese has said he did not know how to approach the material and waited on it. This appears to have been a wise decision. He focuses on showing rather than telling, constantly asking the viewer to engage in the meaning of what is being shown. While the film uses some narration, it rarely offers us a window inside the characters. Instead we are left as the role of observer, often being placed at a distant from the horrors on-screen. This is no mistake, it makes us one with God as a silent viewer.
The story is boiled down to a thin premise. Two priests, Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver, travel to Japan in search of their mentor priest (Liam Neeson). Reports are that he has committed apostasy, renouncing his faith. The two priests eventually separate and the film follow Garfield's Father Sebastião Rodrigues who gets captured and tested to commit the same apostasy. The film observes his crisis of faith. How much suffering should anyone endure in the name of God? What is the value of public faith versus private faith? Does God even notice any of this pain and suffering in his name? How can He only respond with silence?
One's enjoyment or rather engagement with Silence will be determined by one's interest in such questions. Scorsese was headed to priesthood and is now the man behind Wolf of Wall Street. It would be wrong to call this a cinematic Hail Mary for his previous films but it does seem to be addressing some guilt he has about not becoming a man of the cloth.
The film has a somewhat repetitive nature. This is because this crisis of faith is something one lives with for an entire lifetime and does not simply move on from. Within the film, Scorsese directs some of his most powerful scenes to date. A scene of martyrdom on a beach will likely down as one of his most astonishing creations. It simply staggers this seasoned moviegoer to think of how that scene was shot.
The theme of sin has long haunted the director but Silence feels like the most complete comment on the nature of faith Scorsese has made. As believers are made to suffer, we are made to watch. The distance of the camera framing mentioned earlier heightens the want for some action to happen to stop this. Nothing does and that is entirely the point. Father Rodrigues' plight is to decide to what to do in the face of such suffering. A simple act of stepping on the image of Christ can stop it all. Why then must he struggle? The answers Scorsese and co-screenwriter Jay Cooks provide are truly fascinating.
Andrew Garfield shines here, giving his most impassioned and soulful performance to date. Neeson is equally strong here. Driver is side-stepped too often to make an impact but his work here is solid nonetheless. Issei Ogata shines as one of the officials in charge of eradicating Christianity from Japan. Scorsese gives him a fascinating moment to explain the official point-of-view against Christianity, calling Japan a swamp where nothing takes root.
Silence is the culmination of a theme that can be traced back to Mean Streets. Scorsese is working at peak form here. Fans may be disappointed by the film's stationary camera and slow pace. Those who have any experience with faith of any kind should find so many riches here though. This is destined to be an important film in an important director's oeuvre.
4.5/5
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