Silence

“Silence” is one of the most beautifully shot movies I've ever seen, but also one of the most emotionally heavy. Despite taking place during an incredibly dark period for Christians in Japan, the movie is filled with beautiful landscapes, bright sunlight, forests and oceans. I love this contrast. There is so much suffering throughout the movie, yet Scorsese never presents faith itself as something ugly. There is still beauty, love and hope surrounding these characters even when their religion is causing them unimaginable pain. It makes the moments of torture and death, such as for Ichizo, Mokichi and Monica, even harder to watch. Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver are both phenomenal, and I especially loved how Rodrigues and Garupe represent two contrasting visions of Christianity. Garupe believes in absolute loyalty to Christ, even if that loyalty leads to suffering and death, while Rodrigues gradually becomes more concerned with whether remaining loyal to Christ is worth allowing other people to suffer. Yet neither of them lacks sympathy for the Japanese Christians. The high-tide torture scene perfectly shows where their beliefs meet. They are both horrified by what is happening and desperately want to help, even if their understanding of what helping actually means is different. Kichijiro was probably my favourite character in the entire movie, and Yosuke Kubozuka gives an incredible performance. He constantly betrays his faith, begs for forgiveness, returns to Christianity, and then betrays it again. At first he can almost seem pathetic, but the more the movie progresses, the more interesting he becomes. He represents a completely different kind of faith from Rodrigues or Garupe. His faith is weak, selfish and full of fear, but it is still faith. He keeps failing Christ and yet keeps returning to him, which makes him one of the most human characters in the movie. He desires a world where he could have lived and died as a good Christian without the threat of persecution. Through him, the movie asks whether Christianity should only belong to people strong enough to suffer for it, or if someone as weak as Kichijiro deserves forgiveness too. Liam Neeson is also perfect as Ferreira. The introduction of his character at the very beginning and the context behind his transformation 7 years prior to the events with Rodrigues are wonderfully executed. For most of the movie he exists almost like a goal for Rodrigues, the legendary priest who supposedly abandoned everything he believed in. When we finally meet him, though, he isn't simply the complete opposite of the man he once was. He understands Christianity better than almost anyone around him, but he has come to believe that forcing it onto Japan does nothing but create more suffering. His conversations with Rodrigues also bring out one of my favourite aspects of the movie: its refusal to treat the conflict as simply Christianity against evil. Buddhism and Christianity are both presented as belief systems shaped by different cultures and experiences, and Ferreira believes Japan does not need Christianity to be "saved." Whether he is right or simply rationalizing his own apostasy is left for us to decide. The translator is another great character that feeds into this idea, stating that "a tree which flourishes in one kind of earth may decay and die in another". This is what makes the movie's exploration of faith so incredible to me. It constantly asks what faith actually means when the circumstances surrounding it change. Is faith proven by dying for God? Is it more Christian to abandon the outward symbols of your religion if doing so saves innocent people? Does stepping on an image of Christ mean anything if you still believe internally? Rodrigues spends so much of the movie desperately waiting for God to answer him, to put end to the "silence", and when Christ finally does speak, he tells Rodrigues to trample on him. The act that Rodrigues believed would be his ultimate betrayal becomes an act of compassion instead, as the greatest act of suffering becomes the greatest act of faith. "Show God you love Him. Save the lives of the people He loves", as Ferreira puts it. I also loved Rodrigues' diary-like narration throughout the movie. So much time is spent exploring his thoughts that his crisis of faith feels gradual and completely understandable. His greatest struggle is trying to understand why God remains silent while people suffer in his name. By the end, Rodrigues has outwardly abandoned Christianity, but I don't think the movie suggests that his faith simply disappeared. His relationship with faith has completely changed. It becomes something private, something that no longer needs to be proven through martyrdom or public loyalty. The final image makes that especially powerful. The story itself is excellent, the performances are incredible across the board, and the themes of faith, doubt, loyalty, compassion and religious persecution are handled with so much nuance. It never gives an easy answer to any of the questions it raises, and I think that is exactly why it works so well. This feels like one of Scorsese's greatest passion projects, and I honestly think there is an argument for it being his magnum opus. It is vastly different from the style he is most famous for, but it feels like the work of someone who has spent his entire life thinking about religion, guilt, forgiveness and what it actually means to have faith. "Silence" is beautiful, painful, incredibly thoughtful, and easily one of the best movies I've ever seen.