Silence (2016) Reviews

• Silence Of The Lambs

  lucaajmone-it2017-05-09

  Agnus Dei that is, Lambs of God. What an extraordinary film.Martin Scorsese confirms his seriousness of intent and his enormous respect for his audience.He rates us so highly that he confides in us, telling us something that clearly comes straight out of his heart. Dry, severe, an intellectual's sensibility that becomes clear and accessible to all as we realize that Scorsese is not trying to sell us something but just to tell us, to share with us something that obsesses him. I was enthralled and moved throughout. The performances in a Scorsese film are always superb but in Silence, Andrews Garfield goes a step beyond superb. He managed to make his priest someone I knew personally even if his reality is far, far away from us in time and space. A masterpiece.

• Piercing Silence

  willandthomas-picturehou2017-01-07

  The experience is extraordinary from different reasons. Martin Scorsese with a legendary career behind him breaks new ground with the fierce and renewed passion. A film made for the love of film not for box office expectations. A work of love from beginning to end. Then, Andrew Garfield. What a year for this young spectacular actor. The kindness in his eyes made the journey so personal for me. I must say that I've been very lucky because I've been lead by my mentor (another Martin by the way)into the world of Scorsese. I found Scorsese's films brilliant yes, but too dark, too violent and hopeless and my mentor said, "No, don't stay in the periphery, go in. You'll see Martin Scorsese's films are religious experiences" Well I got in, I saw, I felt, I understood and as a consequence I wept for most of Silence. Thank you Marty and Martin from the bottom of my heart.

• Scorsese in Bergman/Dreyer mode, and it's amazing

  Quinoa19842017-01-08

  It's Scorsese. Martin Scorsese. He makes the best films. Is this one of his best? Hmm.... It's a personal/religious epic, but it's all about the interior self - an intimate epic, which is always the toughest to pull off. Silence chronicles morality in such a way that is staggering and with very few specks of light (that is, brief relief through laughter - it does come through the character Kichijiro, more on him in a moment), and it's practically an anomaly to be released by a major studio with such a budget and big stars. This is a story that comes from history you rarely ever get to see anymore - history from a country like Japan that doesn't involve samurai (at least how we see them) and dealing with Christianity vs Buddhism - and it's directed with a level of vision, I mean in the true, eye-and-heart opening sense that declares that this man still has a lot to say, maybe more than ever, in his latter years. Silence is, now pondering it hours after seeing it, possibly the best "faith-based" film ever made (or at least since Last Temptation of Christ); in its unintentional way, a great antidote to those pieces of garbage like God's Not Dead and War Room which preach only to a select few and insult the intelligence of everyone else. In this story of Jesuit priests who go on a journey to find a priest who may be long gone but could be found and brought home, it's meant for adults who can and should make up their own minds on religion and God, and the persecution part of it isn't some ploy from the filmmakers for fraudulent attention. This is about exploring what it means if you have faith, or how to question others who do, and what happens when people clash based on how people see the sun. Literally, I'm serious. It's also heavier than most other films by this director, which is good but also tough to take on a first viewing. And yet it feels always like a Scorsese film, not only due to the rigorous craft on display (I could feel the storyboards simmering off on to the screen, I mean that as a compliment, this is staggeringly shot by Rodrigo Prieto, I'm glad Scorsese's found another guy), or the performances from the main actors (Garfield is easily giving his all, and not in any cheesy way, Driver's solid, Neeson seems to be paying some sort of penance for some mediocre action fare), but because of a key character: Kichijiro. He's someone who really fits in to the Scorsese canon of characters who are so tough to take - he makes things difficult for Rodrigues, to say the least, and yet keeps coming back like some sad pathetic dog who can't make up his mind - but, ultimately, the toughest thing of all for this Father, as it must be for this filmmaker, is 'I know he is weak and irrational and probably bad in some way... but he must be loved as all of other God's children.' So as far as unsung performances for 2016 go, Yôsuke Kubozuka follows in a tradition set out by none other than De Niro (think of him in Mean Streets and Raging Bull, it's like that only not quite so angry). I may need another viewing to fully grasp it. But for now, yes, see it, of course. For all its length and vigorous explorations and depictions of suffering (occasionally highly graphic), not to mention the, for Scorsese, highly unusual approach of a lack of traditional (or any) music or score, it's unlike anything you'll see in cinema this year, maybe the decade, for pairing the struggle of a man to reconcile his God and his responsibility to others in a repressive regime with the visual splendor of something from another time - maybe Kurosawa if he'd had a collaboration with Bergman. And yet for all of this high praise, there's also a feeling of being exhausted by the end of it. Whether that exhaustion extends to other viewings I'm not sure yet. As a life-long "fan" of this director, I was impressed if not blown away.

• Unapologetic story of faith, conversion and martyrdom

  kinolieber2017-02-02

  SILENCE is beautifully filmed and strangely involving for such a grim and slow-moving tale. For a 2 hr 40 min movie, I never felt bored or felt that the story was unnecessarily stretched out. As an ex Catholic who, as a child, was intrigued by the idea of martyrdom and by tales of the saints who were killed because they refused to renounce their faith (and so, got an express ticket to heaven - a very attractive end result for one who feared hell as much as I did), I could identify in a more distanced way with the protagonists and their Catholic followers in Japan. I expected that in telling a story set 400 years ago, Scorsese would provide some kind of modern day insight (psychological, political,sexual) to the true events depicted in his narrative. Instead, all I could glean was that this was a film by a devout Catholic, about devout Catholics. Who would have thought Scorsese was possessed by such primal and dogmatic religious feelings? Shockingly, the Japanese culture is referred to more than once as a 'swamp' where nothing truly spiritual, much less Catholic, can grow. The inquisitor who persecutes the Catholics is portrayed by a lizardy actor with a high pitched voice, doing what I guess is the Japanese equivalent of a moustache-twirling villain. Cruelty, execution and torture take up a large part of the picture, and while accurate I suppose, is probably no worse that what was done by the Catholic inquisition in Europe. I was hoping for some kind of statement about religious fanaticism, and at one point, when a Buddhist is trying to reason with the priest, asking why it isn't better to focus on the common elements of the world's different religions, I thought the film was going in that direction. But it ends on an 'upbeat' religious note, when it is revealed that the priest held onto his faith in the Catholic god right up to the end. The film was premiered at The Vatican which says a lot about where it's coming from. There is a dedication to the priests and converts in Japan. I wasn't impressed by Andrew Garfield in the central role. I felt like he was miscast, so it's mostly not his fault - too young and modern (and who kept his hair so coiffed in the first half of the movie?). Adam Driver was excellent as always, but not sure why he felt he needed to lose all that weight for the role, he was really skinny and sunken-eyed. Liam Neeson, also miscast with his very tall stature and hard-to- disguise Irishness was good in a thankless role. The Japanese actors (except for the inquisitor) were fine, but most of their characters were never really developed into anything more than simple-minded worshippers or cruel torturers.

• I was silenced after watching it

  paulijcalderon2017-02-01

  Wow, I would be lying if I said that I wasn't silenced after watching this film. Really interesting subject matter. I am curious about the book now. When I first heard about the film I thought it looked like a modern "Andrei Rublev" set in Japan. Well, I was wrong about that. This film is very much its own beast. These are my first impressions right after seeing it. I didn't know much about the history of the Jesuit priests who traveled all the way to Japan. I did know that some Japanese converted to Christianity, but I didn't know there were that many. So, I was very surprised by that. It does explain a lot though. I understand more of the reasons why a civil war started in Japan that would ultimately lead to any foreigner being banned from the country. It's actually very interesting how the Japanese Christians almost feel more faithful than a lot of the European characters. This film explores both the beauty and the horrors of humans and their faiths. There are many beautiful calm scenes where you can relax and admire the stunning sets and locations. Then there are many scenes that will make you nervous, emotional and horrified because of the cruel punishments that some people must endure. Religion is an interesting subject matter and everyone has their own different view and opinion on it. I still haven't finished processing this film yet, but I'll tell you this; it's something that will stay on your mind for a while. It makes you think about a lot of things. Like what's right and wrong about the different views brought up in the film? And how would things have been different if everyone would have accepted each others beliefs? And even if they didn't believe in the same thing, could they all still live in peace? It's not an action packed adventure, but more of a spiritual journey with exploration about morals, history and so much more. I thought it was wonderful, but do see it if you can and judge for yourself.