Silence Review

Martin Scorsese has been making films for almost 50 years, over which time he has cultivated a filmography that marks him out as one of the finest voices in cinema. When most think of his work they think of his excellent work in the gangster genre, looking at the lives of Italian-Americans, what has been most prominent in all of his work though is religion and with this years Silence Scorsese finally brings to screen his 30 year passion project.

Silence focuses on the persecution of Christians in 17th century Japan. The story follows Portuguese Jesuit priests father Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and father Garupe (Adam Driver) who receive word of a rumour that their great mentor father Ferreira (Liam Neeson) has committed apostasy and renounced his faith, they set out on a trip to Japan to find their mentor and discover whether there is any truth to the rumours.

At 160mins in length, Silence really does ask a lot of its audience, its an endurance test as much as anything. It's long running time means the film is in no rush for the young priests to reach their destination. On the way we spend a long time with small village communities of persecuted Christians who are completely enamoured with the Jesuit's and Scorsese shows the purest devotion to their faith that these people have. Then there's the second half of the film after the young priests become separated, which is devoted to the emotional torture laid out to father Rodrigues in an effort to get him to commit apostasy.

Andrew Garfield's performances as Rodrigues is the beating heart of the film, the way he portrays the arc of his character is incredibly nuanced and affecting. Rodrigues is a man who is completely identified by his devotion to his faith, but taking him out of the comfort of the relative luxury of Portugal and forcing him into a completely different environment begins to form cracks in his unbreakable faith. In the face of the Japanese Christians whose devotion is completely resolute, Rodrigues' faith begins to come off as a source of pride, he sees himself as a Christ like figure on a noble mission in possession of a certain arrogance and superiority. In one particular moment when Rodrigues is certain he faces death he breaks down into sheer panic and terror, a reaction that confuses the Japanese Christians who are waiting to ascend to paradise, something that surely Rodrigues should have absolute faith in at that point.


The film is helped monumentally by an exceptional supporting cast of Japanese actors. Yosuke Kombozuka is brilliant as Kichijiro, a man who's idea of what Christianity is to him begins to wear away at Rodrigues' devotion to his faith. Tadanobu Asano is quietly effective is the interpreter who is given a lot of the responsibility to oversee the breaking down of Rodrigues. Then there is the fantastic performance given by Issei Ogata as Inoue, the man responsible for the persecution of the Christians, his performance provides the film with some much needed balance, his conversations with Rodrigues put into perspective the extreme nature of the torture and oppression that they are inflicting upon the Christians, he should really be the 'bad guy', but you begin to understand his point of view.

This isn't an easy watch by any means, you'll take out of it what you bring to it, it probably will hit home much more with those who've had some sort of faith in their life. For those that haven't however, there are still some exceptional performances, beautiful cinematography and social commentary on historical imperialism. Silence is the type of film that will sit with you for a while and nestle into a part of your brain to ruminate over. Ultimately what it is, is a brilliant Martin Scorsese film.

(5 Stars)