Martin Scorcese basically has nothing to prove anymore as a director. The number of classics he’s made is enormous and when he makes a new movie as a film fan you know you can’t miss it. What does he offer the viewer with Silence?
It’s the 17th century and two young priests, Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garupe (Adam Driver) travel to Japan in seearch of their lost mentor Ferreira (Liam Neeson). He went to the country in order to spread the christian faith, but Japan has been doing everything possible in order to stop that. It’s forbidden to be christian and the two priests quickly find out what that means.
“subdued en subtle…”
Of course religion is very important to Scorcese and with Silence he’s made a movie where he shows in a beautiful way how that faith can be tested. Japanese christians are in fear of their lives and are at times horribly tortured. Rodrigues and Garupe deal with that in their own ways. The main focus though is on Rodrigues, played well by Garfield. A character who’s prepared to defend his faith to the extreme and discuss it. Silence is subdued and subtle and takes it’s time to let the characters breathe and come to life. The result is a movie which gives you a good idea about the power of religion on a person, but also what that can lead to.
I absolutely loved this movie and it was the second viewing that brought everything into focus for me.
It was well made and like that I’ve seen it, but probably wouldn’t watch it a second time because of its slow pacing.