Silence : Scorsese’s intensive take on effects of religion in 17th Century Japan.

 Martin Scorsese is always known for his contribution in the era of Gangster thriller oriented movies. This includes movies like Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Gangs of New York, Irishman to name a few. Silence on the other hand is a very religious movies quite different from what he is known of. Adding to Kundum and Last Temptation of Christ, this third religious movie by him is quite an intense take on the suppression of Christianity during 17th Century Japan. It is a great movie which sadly was a commercial flop in the movie industry mainly because of its take on religion which is still quite a topic not fully appreciated by the audience.

Setup in the 17th  Century, Silence revolves around the journey of two Jesuit priests Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garupe (Adam Driver) in searching for their teacher Ferreira (Liam Neeson) who claims to have renounced their faith on Christianity in Japan. With the help of a Japanese person Kichijiro, they both reach Japan and witness the horror of Christians getting killed on the account of believing in it and facing serious torture and living in hideouts in order not to face the inquisitor.  The movie is a brief account of adventure of both of these priests as they see the massacre of people being killed in the name of religion and questioning themselves on their faith.

The movie really goes intense in the methods of torture the people faced in those times making the audience realizing the pain and suffering. Scorsese manages to capture this amazingly with striking visuals  which makes even the viewer question on their faith towards religion. People died in cruxifications against the tidal waves in the beach for days making the pain even more brutal and also making the family members watch their beloved passing away. With mainly nature sounds as background music, each of these  scenes stand apart and give an impactful image. The talks between Ferreira and Rodrigues on the existence of Christianity in Japan and discussing the true meaning of life and faith is quite a long scene where the core of the movie lies. The apostasy scene of Rodrigues where he hears the voice of Jesus telling him to step up his foot on fumi-e of Jesus in order to save lives of people is very intricate point of what faith actually means to someone. The final scene showing the death of Rodrigues with the cross in his hands symbolizes the eternal belief he has on Christianity in spite of claiming to have it renounced.

Scorsese along with Jay Cocks did fantastic job of writing the script of the movie inspired from the novel by Shusaku Edo of the name same. It is evident that we show the obsession and passion of Scorsese where he  really captures out the emotions among the actors with long still sequences. Many of the scenes can itself work as still shots which are beautifully captured.

Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver nailed their respective roles. The sheer dedication in learning about the Jesuits and the body transformations is visible enough. Even the uncanny resemblance of Garfield representing Christ just makes the acting way more intense. His emotions and the impressive belief on his faith until the last moments just makes every scene worthwhile to watch. Liam Neeson also did a great job in his role.

Overall Silence is an intense realistic movie which one must be ready in his or her mind to watch. It goes as one of the underrated gems in cinema. Do give a watch if you are ready for 2hr 40mins ride on Christianity and faith.