An Exploration of Faith Under Persecution
Martin Scorsese’s Silence is a gripping yet challenging film. Adapted from Shūsaku Endō’s novel of the same name, the story follows two Portuguese Jesuit priests in the 17th century who travel to a hostile Japan after learning that their mentor has supposedly apostatized. Scorsese has explored his own Catholic faith on screen before, perhaps most provocatively in The Last Temptation of Christ, and Silence is another terrific entry in that canon in which he wrestles with what being faithful really means when being Christian is itself a danger to those who practice.
Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver play Fathers Rodrigues and Garupe, respectively, the two young priests who volunteer to find the missing Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson). All three give fully dedicated performances, with Garfield in particular given the brunt of the theological anxiety. Throughout the film he wonders if God and Christ can really hear his prayers. He feels Christ’s presence in the strong faith of the Christian Japanese villagers who take him and Garupe in upon their arrival, but he questions it when he witnesses their punishment at the hands of the Inquisitor (Issey Ogata). Rodrigues is flexible in his view of apostatizing—demonstrated here as stepping on an image of Jesus—seeing it as a method of survival as long as the apostate’s beliefs didn’t follow their actions, though even this is challenged when the Inquisitor gives the Japanese Christians additional tests (like spitting on a crucifix and calling Jesus’ mother a whore).
Scorsese, who co-wrote the screenplay with Jay Cocks, carefully reveals the Japanese position on Christianity that adds a great deal of depth to the persecution the Inquisitor carries out. Though he treats the Christians monstrously, there is an eerie cool of logic behind it all, one that Rodrigues is forced to reckon with as he struggles to understand exactly what the Japanese want beyond public repudiations of faith; and how far down that path can he go and remain faithful? The specter of Father Ferreira hangs over the proceedings as we wonder about his fate, and Neeson, who is terrific in the few scenes he has, fully delivers as the long lost priest who provides some additional context and answers to that question.
Silence was a long time in the making for Scorsese, who had pursued it for over 25 years before finally starting production, and even then it was a five month shoot in mountainous parts of Taiwan. The director’s deep passion for the story and subject matter is felt in every single frame of the film’s 161 minutes. The Oscar-nominated cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto is beautiful, the period details in the costumes and sets are fantastic, and the film is well-paced; another successful collaboration between Scorsese and his longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker. The film will likely play very differently to those of varying piety. As a largely secular person who was raised Jewish and attended Catholic schools, I was engaged and fascinated, but not overwhelmed by emotion. No matter religious affiliation or devotion, Silence is a powerful, personal film from a filmmaker who’s never been content to accept the easy answers about his faith.