User Reviews

Silence is a difficult movie. The movie is set in Japan in the 17th century and deals with the role of Christianity at that time. From a historical point of view, it's quite interesting, especially because I haven't dealt with the subject matter shown before.

The various locations around Japan are really well chosen and staged in a contemporary way. Impressive images are shown as well. The movie also takes the necessary time to let what is shown take effect. As a consequence, the pace is correspondingly slow. On the one hand I find that good, on the other hand I miss the tension highlights. People are persecuted and tortured. This constant fear of being caught is communicated, but as a viewer you don't feel it at any time.

What I liked was the portrayal of Andrew Garfield's inner conflict. He starts to doubt God and he tries to find the right way back to God. But at the same time he doesn't want to show this doubting to the people, because they have it hard enough anyway. This whole process is well portrayed.

My main problem with the movie is that it couldn't catch me. I wasn't able to connect emotionally. It is thought-provoking and has good moments, but overall the movie was very drawn out.

There's a reasonable argument to say that SILENCE is one of Martin Scorsese's better movies. The talk is that it was a passion project of his for decades, finally being released in all it's artistic endeavors and mysteries. I suppose someone else could argue the opposite: that this is a story full of brutality and despair without the signature style of the aged director. I think I'm falling right on the middle on this one. This is surely one of the year's most powerful stories, and yet I have to admit it left me cold.

The story follows two priests from Portugal (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver) who venture into hostile Japanese country in search of their mentor, Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson), who has abandoned his Christian faith. Some chalk it up to mere rumors. These two young ministers take the journey to find out for themselves.

What begins as a fairly traditional story ventures into the heart of Japan in the 16th Century with a sharp attention to both detail and horror. This is less a story of a search for one man as it is an odyssey into the despair found in conflicting religious beliefs. Father Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) holds hope that Ferreira is alive while also working to convert as many locals under cover of darkness. Upon landing on the shores of Japan (smuggled in on small fishing boats from China), he encounters villages of faithful Christians who worship in secret. For them, the arrival of Rodrigues and Father Garupe (Driver) is confirmation of their beliefs. Through language barriers, it seems that God is always present.

As we delve further into the country towards Nagasaki (where Ferreira is said to be held), the two priest break off on separate journeys. Rodrigues, though oftentimes alone, is shadowed by a Japanese recluse named Kichijiro, a drunk who once betrayed his faith in order to spare his life (he witnessed the execution of his entire family) but returns to the faith time again in order to make Confession and amends with the Lord. Rodrigues continues to absolve him, and yet this is the slow unraveling of an aspect of this story: do the Japanese really comprehend the religion in the same way Westerners do?

There are three people who make this movie better than average: Andrew Garfield surely gives one of the year's best performances as a man trapped in his own personal Hell, forced to grapple between martyrdom and eternal damnation. It's a strong year for Garfield, getting accolades and Oscar buzz for his other leading role in 'Hacksaw Ridge.' Trust me, this is the better performance. Second is the skill of Martin Scorsese, who slowly paints a portrait of a time long forgot with such attention to tone. It's a horrifying and at times morbid story to sit through, but there was never a moment I found myself any less than fully-focused and contemplative.

Third is a surprise, a breakthrough performance by a Japanese actor named Issey Ogata who gives without a doubt one of the year's most memorable performances. Throughout the film the Christians living in Japan are routinely inspected by samurai officials who intend to hunt down and capture any found citizens in violation of the law. One such official is Inoue Masashige (Ogata) who treats the job with a certain flair. Constantly waving a fan and with an ear to ear smile, this is a performance that steps above the rest of the cast by perfectly encapsulating the braggadocious nature of Japanese law without missing a beat. It's a winking devil performance that I hope the Oscars won't look over.

'Silence' is at times hard to palpate and yet rewards the audience for it's patience. Whether or not this film can be interpreted as being pro or anti-Catholic is maybe not the ultimate message of this film. While the final act delves into a horrifyingly-dark arena, consider the final shot before the credits begin to role (I won't spoil it). In such a brutal era with antiquated customs, isn't there still hope left to be found?

Silence (2016)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Priests Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garupe (Adam Driver) travel to the dangerous Japan where they are looking for their mentor Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson) who is said to have turned his back on God. Ferreira was there to teach the Japanese people Christianity but soon members of Japan began killing the missionaries as well as their own people. Before long Rodrigues is questioning his faith and what power it might really have.

Martin Scorsese had been trying to get Shusaku Endo's novel made for well over twenty-years when he finally got the greenlight. Some reports stated that the directed refused to make another picture until his dream project came to be and in 2016 it was finally released. It was released to mostly positive reviews but it quickly became clear that it was a box office dud and it even managed to get shut out at Oscar time, which is something very few Scorsese movies could actually say. What's sad is that so many religious movies take the subject on without being overly serious or asking any questions and they become hits. This one here asks some really challenging questions and no one is there.

I'm not going to call SILENCE a masterpiece because I found there to be some flaws in the picture but there's no question that the direction, acting and all technical aspects are terrific. I will talk about the major flaw I had with the picture and it's during the first ninety-minutes. I honestly thought twenty of these minutes could have been edited out because I thought it took the film way too long to move forward and get to the real meat of the story, which is the Priest and Father Ferreira having a battle of wills. The film is about one questioning their own faith in brutal conditions and the final hour is where the film really sours and I can't help but think it would have been better had we gotten here a tad bit further.

With that said, there's still an extremely deep look at faith going on here and I really loved the fact that it didn't treat the subject lightly or take on that mentality that you can't question your faith. The screenplay by Scorsese an Jay Cocks really digs into both of the Priests and their view on the horrors that they are witnessing people going through in the name of Christ. I thought the film had some deeply touching moments where people must question their faith, stay true to what they believe in even when they know their lives will be taken. There are some really powerful moments scattered throughout the film and the fact that Scorsese decided not to use a music score adds to the power.

Then there are the performances, which are wonderful. Both Driver and Neeson are extremely good but so are the various supporting players. Yosuke Kubozuka and Shin'ya Tsukamoto are excellent in each scene that they're in. Then you've got Garfield who really shocked me here. This is a rather quiet role where the actor has several scenes where he's just by himself, thinking to himself and to me this is where Garfield really shined. The quiet nature to the performance means that the actor had to use his emotions and eyes and I thought he did a remarkable job.

SILENCE isn't a film that's going to appeal to a lot of people and I'm sure some will find the subject and its questioning faith to be something they won't want to sit through, which is a real shame. It's certainly a film that will take multiple viewings to do it justice but it's a unique film.

Far superior to his belly flop Kundun (& less sanctimonius), Silence is a confession by Scorsese that despite working in the trenches of secular hollywood, Scorsese will one day die clutching a tiny crucifix in his palm. A must watch film which will be misunderstood by liberals and misused by conservatives, this is quite possibly Scorsese at his least pretentious.

How does it stack up against his other work? Whilst the Last Temptation was a shallow comic book adaptation of a great novel, this is a more mature rendering of the burden of faith. Is it as good as Goodfellas (still his best) - nope, but it is better than the over processed Casino, or the dead-because-it-should've-been-a-documentary Gangs of New York (which was clunky and sloppy).

Can't say enough about the cast. Excellent work that they should all be looking back with pride on for years to come.

This was Martin Scorsese's passion project. The reason he waited so long was because he didn't feel like he was ready. But when he finally made it, it bombed. Silence is a deconstruction and an examination of faith and spirituality. It's long, patient, quiet, slow. Thus, by the end of the film you will be exhausted. Andrew Garfield gives one his best performances, watching his soul gradually crumble was nothing short of heartbreaking. Adam Driver and Liam Neeson were great as well. Silence is a film not to be played as background noise. It's very hard to watch at points. But if your patient and committed to view it in it's entirety, you'll find something immensely rewarding. Silence is Scorsese's most underrated film, as well as one of the most underrated films of the 21st century.

In the Seventeenth Century, in Portugal, the Portuguese Jesuit priests Sebastião Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Francisco Garupe[ (Adam Driver) ask permission to Father Alessandro Valignano (Ciarán Hinds) to travel to Japan to investigate the rumors that their mentor Father Cristóvão Ferreira (Liam Neeson) had committed apostasy abandoning his Catholic faith after being tortured by the shogunate. They meet the alcoholic fisherman Kichijiro (Yosuke Kubozuka) that agrees to guide them to Japan. When they arrive at a small village, they learn that the Christians residents live hidden in caves since the Inquisitor kills any villager suspect to be Christian. Along the days, Rodrigues and Garupel propagate Catholicism among the villagers and try to find a lead to Ferreira. But when the Inquisitor arrives in the village with his men, the live of the residents and the priests will change.

"Silence" is a film directed by Martin Scorcese that shows how cruel a man can be. Based on historical facts, "Silence" show the powerful Shogunate defending their religion and culture against the European Catholicism that promises easy paradise to the suffered Japanese workers that has to work lot to pay the taxes and survive. The result is a good, but too long and tiresome film. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Silêncio" ("Silence")

'Silence' is exactly what you would expect from a Martin Scorsese film in that it is well-produced, written and shot with a strong storyline and engaging lead characters. There aren't many films that explore religion and faith as deeply as this one and there's no doubt that it is an intellectual, thought-provoking piece that Scorsese has created. It's also visually stunning - as a piece of filmmaking 'Silence' is difficult to fault.

It is, however, very easy to fault as a piece of entertainment. For all its technical merit, the truth is that this is an overly long, tediously slow and largely dull film that the average viewer will struggle to sit through. The pacing does it no favours and the near three-hour running length is excessive to say the least. It could have been condensed to closer to the two-hour mark without losing much at all from the storyline.

'Silence' is obviously more likely to appeal to those with religious/spiritual beliefs, and they would probably get a lot more out of this film than I did. A well-crafted film, but rather dull and unrewarding for the average viewer.

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.

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.

I really wanted to like this movie. As a Christian, I should have. Yet it is as dull as it is brutal. Arguably some kind of re-enactment of the trials of Christ, all it amounts to is two-and-a-half punishing hours of Christian persecution in ancient Japan, with endless screaming and emotionalism and not much in way of sub-plots, in fact nothing. I kept returning to it doggedly, just as with a book you are determined to finish, yet never really enjoying. All this in spite of the stunning cinematography, amazing costumes and fascinating period detail, great performances and spectacular scenery.

Two young Jesuit priests travel to 17th-century Japan, where Christianity has been outlawed. The priests wish to verify whether their mentor has apostatized, but end up facing their own crises of faith. Silence is a huge disappointment, mainly because the main premise, a young priest having a theological crisis in the horror of Godless Japan, does not transfer well to screen. It may well be riveting in the original novel, but the interior world of Garfield does not sufficiently become exterior. This despite ample narration from the protagonist himself, and the bizarre introduction in the last 20 minutes or so of an as yet unseen character, a European merchant whose heavy-handed exposition is, I suspect, intended to close the narrative in a way the images and momentum to this point have failed to do. Garfield performs well, Liam Neeson is reduced to a cameo, and Tadanobu Asano is similarly under-used. An implicit critique of Christian missionary in foreign lands is under-developed. What the Japanese made of these interlopers would be worth exploring, but the film shows little interest in the Japanese point of view. For the first time ever, I was bored by a Scorsese film. Silence is dull, and lacks vision.

To this day, Martin Scorsese remains my all-time favourite director, a man whose approach to cinema completely differs to others in Hollywood, his appreciation towards cinema as an art form is his finest quality in what makes him arguably the greatest film director around. With 'Silence' promoted as Scorsese's 20-year passion project, it was a film I couldn't resist seeing, the legend back behind the camera focusing on a subject not fully studied in cinema, a subject that's mostly misunderstood.

I want to start with my conclusion and go from there. 'Silence' won't be everybody's film, the same way other ambitious films like 'The Revenant' or 'The Tree of Life' weren't, however despite my respect to Scorsese's mastery and level of detail, in my own honest opinion I believe this film fell short due to the lack of insight into it's main theme and thus instead transformed into a slow and somewhat dreary tale that arguably didn't need it's near 3-hour running time to tell its tale.

Now don't get me wrong, in regards to the film's craft it is a masterpiece, the cinematography is raw and epic, the direction from Scorsese is phenomenal and the set design is gorgeous. Accompanying this are a series of fine performances, most notably from Andrew Garfield who should receive monumental praise for his role, I haven't seen such a visceral performance in years, the raw emotion is uncanny. But unfortunately the technicalities and craft can't cover up the flaws that lie in the running time and the tediously slow plot that didn't want to end.

If there's anything I can leave you with from this review to help you decide as to whether it's a worthy watch or not, let me just say this: 'Silence' isn't a piece of entertainment, it's instead an experience; and whilst a technically masterful one at that, many audience members may find themselves slowly drifting off to sleep - as my neighbour in the cinema did. It isn't really a case of liking it or disliking it, it's more a case of the adventure, and despite my partial disappointment with it, the adventure was more than worthy enough for the viewing. Scorsese is still an exquisite auteur, flaws or not.

In 17th century Japan, Christians are persecuted. Jesuit priests from Portugal and their Japanese peasant converts are being massacred. Word arrives that senior priest Ferreira (Liam Neeson) had renounced his faith. His proteges Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garupe (Adam Driver) are in disbelief. They travel to Japan guided by refugee Kichijiro who claims to be Christian. They find small communities of fearful Christians trying to hide their faith from ruthless inquisitor governor Inoue Masashige and cunning interpreter Mokichi.

Martin Scorsese doesn't know how to film a bad looking scene. The first half is harrowing and on its way to being one of the best films of the year. The midway point has Rodrigues and Garupe disagreeing about trampling a religious icon. That argument needs to be aired out and expanded. Scorsese should have let them stake out their positions. It would clarify Rodrigues' starting point and allow his journey to be more compelling. It's just odd that he seems to appreciate the deadly danger at that point but naively shocked at the actual violence done to the people after that. I expected him to be smarter or at least, not be the doe-eyed innocent shocked at everything. His emotional journey should be less melodramatic so that Ferreira's reveal could be much more shocking. With a minor alteration, the journey would have worked much better.

When a great movie moves at a slower pace than the average movie-viewer tolerates, they never understand the reason for it. They question & complain about it and yet, often they are still drawn into it - never even quite sure why.

As always, the dull-minded viewer will hate this kind of movie. I wonder why they bother to watch in the first place.

For the above-average, this movie is a masterpiece in every way - the pace of this movie is excellent and necessary to the entire point & story of the film - not only in regards to every part of production, dialogue, wardrobe, location, capturing the era, etc, but the depth and feel of the story which - altho novel, brings to life such stories as found in Foxes Book of Martyers for one of many examples.

While I'm not Catholic, this film is about persecution & working out ones faith & spirituality while being human. Any spiritual path could be inserted here. Deeper thinkers do, & will appreciate it as often as it's viewed in the future.

Meanwhile, if you need a bit of inspiration on thinking deeper - specifically about how spirituality both clashes with & overcomes humanity, often simultaneously, think Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah'.

A film about faith that ends up making a fairly complete mockery of faith, as well as courage, sacrifice honor or any other human virtue.

What is truly sad about "Silence" is that it comes at a time when ISIS is doing the same things to Christians and other individuals of faith, yet seems to justify the horrors committed and basically blame the victims for their own sufferings.

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.

I rarely score movies a 10 out of 10, but Martin's Scorsese's Silence fully deserves it. This movie is so haunting, so impressive, has such an emotional and spiritual impact, even after viewing it multiple times, it does not fail to impress, and leave a mark on your soul.

The subject of the movie is highly unusual, as well as highly unpopular, both with Christian viewers, as with non-Christian viewers. Some of the reviews here clearly show anti-Christian sentiments who just seem to down-vote because of the clear Christian content of this movie. It's not often that in a movie Jesus actually speaks. Apparently that triggers a nerve, almost similar to how the Japanese responded when Jesuit priests came to Japan to share the gospel of salvation through the redemptive work of Christ in his vicarious death, suffering for the sins of mankind. This has been described in Shusaku Endo's novel, the base for this movie. But we also know from other historic accounts how blatantly anti-Christian the Japanese elite were, seeing it as a direct threat to their rule. The brutal persecution that followed resulted in Christianity being almost completely erased from Japan until modern times, and still modern Japan has only a marginal number of Christians.

But the movie goes deeper, touching subjects that also make many Christians feel uncomfortable. Do not expect a heroic, glorious, Hollywood, happy-clappy, superficial version of Christianity, with a feel good happy ending. It goes deep, and it goes raw. Which is not what many Christian viewers seemed to expect either. Not surprisingly, Endo's novel initially was harshly criticized by Roman Catholics, a sentiment that is reflected in some reviewers comments too.

This movie not only takes the viewers in a fascinating but gruesome bit of history, it also dares to explore some very deeply disturbing spiritual questions, without providing the answers. The movie is beautifully shot, and the sound design perfectly reflects the gruesome atmosphere. Viewers have complained this movie is too long and boring, but I strongly disagree. The slow buildup, the somewhat repetitious events, all bring the viewer into an inner state where you really connect to the issues presented deep in your soul. And the acting work of Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver is actually amazing, especially for actors of their age. In contrast I found the acting of Liam Neeson a bit underwhelming.

At the surface the movie addresses the already difficult issue of suffering and persecution. How is someone prepared to suffer under persecution for the faith that is his deepest conviction? But also, how does a Christian deal with the guilt of denouncing his faith, and can he repent of that and be restored in the faith. And at what point have you suffered enough? Should you give in -- not to save your own life, but the life of others? And if you give in, does it mean you failed as a Christian?

But the movie goes deeper, as you can probably guess from the title. How can God allow his faithful servants to suffer? Why does He appear to be silent? Why does He not interfere? Why does He not help these missionaries to spread the Christian faith? It is this same question not only the viewer, but the characters struggle with. Does the silence imply God does not exist? The characters are brutally tortured while facing these questions. And we follow them as they struggle with these questions. Yet, in face of all this, chilling, literally awesome appearances of the suffering Christ are shown, where He speaks to us. Is it imagination, is it real to the characters?

The movie is excellent to NOT give an answer to these questions, although it is somewhat suggestive. It offers these questions to the viewer, to think of these profound questions himself.

It's rare to encounter a movie which takes such an approach, and dares to address such deeply spiritual themes in such a way to confront the viewer and deeply disturb him.

Haunting. Highly recommended.

Thinking of the immense suffering European Christianity wrecked on other parts of the world, it would seem, that the Japanese were 100% right in recognizing the evil threatening their shores as early as back in the 17th century - which is the scenario of this movie.

If that was the message of Scorsese or if it was, as some have suggested, the opposite; Vis-à-vis the courageous suffering of Catholic priests in face of immense adversity is unclear.

A side note: At least Japan was spared the hundreds of thousands of instances of child abuse, that were to come in the places, were the Church succeeded in defeating all opposition.

Martin Scorsese took 20 years to bring Endo Shusaku's 'Silence' to the screen, for lack of funding.

Set in Japan during the 17 century in the wake of the failure of the mainly Christian peasants revolt against the ruling Tokugawa clan in the wake of the Battle of Shinmabara, in the Kansai region of Japan (including Osaka, Nakasaki, the island of Kyushu and surrounding islands).

This salient fact is absent in Scorsese's wondrous film: its absence puzzles the general audience whose grasp of Japanese history is tenuous at best.

Pictorially, it is remarkably shot in vivid, painterly colors. Cinematographer Diego Prieto uses fire, the earth, water, air and the vacuum that repression of Christian weigh on the spirit of Japan.

Shusaku uses the metaphor of the swamp to designate Japan as unfit for Christianity to take root.

But is that true? The Counter Reformation sent forth the Jesuits to bring Roman Christianity to the world. They found fertile ground in southern (Kansai) Japan.

'Silence' puts the number of converts as 300.000, including samurai (nobles) and peasants. What, again, is absent in Scorsese script, is that the arrival of Christianity took place in a n age of warring clans, that the Tokugawa Shoguns won, thereby consolidating their rule until the coming of Admiral Perry's black ships forced open in the 1850s, from its splendid isolation.

The Christianized south thus became a rival, backed by adherence and, possibly, allegiance to foreigners and the Pope in Rome. Which, it can be argued attacked the idea of what being a Japanese meant, Japan's independence, and the introduction of foreign influences and ideas, manners and trade and customs.

The early Tokugawa restricted trade and limited movement of foreigners. After Shimabara, the shoguns in Edo (Tokyo), waged a brutal, merciless campaign to eradicate vestiges of Christianity in and closed Japan to the outside world.

'Silence begins with two Jesuits slipping secretly into Kansai to find the only remaining Jesuit who it is bruited has become an apostate.

The Japanese authorities forced Christians to step on the portrait of the Virgin or Christ on the cross, to renounce Christianity. Those who refused suffer lingering torture until they expired: boiled alive, hanged upside down with a slit on an artery the better to exsanguinate the victim in a death of a single knife cut, crucifixion, and so on, ,the better to successfully expunge any vestige of Roman Christianity in Japan.

Andrew Garfield as Father Rodrigues and Adam Driver as Father Garppe are on a mission to investigate the truth of Father Feirreira's apostasy.

Smuggled into Kyushu, they find a group of hidden Christians who find comfort in the priests presence, the reciting of the mass once more, the ministration of the sacraments, ending a prolonged period of spiritual drought.

The priests are helped by a renegade Christian Kichigiro (Yasuke Kubozuka), who like the disciple Peter betrays his God (whom the Jesuits represent) three times. In consequent, risking the very lives of his secret coreligionists.

Garfield is a figure in black that is strikingly different with colors of Japan. He is pious, self-effacing, but smug in his beliefs. You wonder about these two men gone far away from their home,; the lose themselves in something larger and stranger than the lives they had known. They are driven by the Jesuit motto: for the greater glory of God. They have taken holy orders, they have a spiritual map and exercises to achieve their appointed goals.

Alas, Scorsese's script makes them out to be lifeless, lacking animation. Vapid is the best term to portray Scorsese's concept of them. His genera; conceit may arise from the religious training he received in the old St. Patrick Cathedral School in Little Italy more than 60years ago.

Scorsese is, I believe, a very spiritual man, and his film clearly raises questions of right and wrong and salvation.

However, for him and his reading of Shusaku's 'Silence', he has sunk into a Western bog when it comes to Japan.

And yet, the Japanese characters are full of life and they, in contrast to the Jesuits, are colorful, complex and complicated; and be they peasant or samurai, they come out of the screen, leaving sensory scratches on our minds. They are earthy and full-blooded, they are subtle and keen and maliciously playful in playing hot and cold to stamp out traces of Christianity.

Tadanobu Asano as the interpreter and especially Issei Ogata as the wily Inquisitor can, in my mind, rivals Dostoyevsky's breaths much life into 'Silence'. The Japanese cast does a yeoman's job and deserves high praise.

In the end, an apostate priest remains in Japan. In a way, if you recall the ending of Evelyn Waugh's 'Brideshead Revisited', the hero Charles Ryder kneels in the Marchmain' chapel, once again consecrated with the red flame signaling the presence of Christ in the tabernacle, Garfield remains, despite his spiritual sacrifice, a priest, a representative of Jesus in a Japan where technically no practicing Christians remain. But Garfield is that red light until he dies.

Truth be told in Kansai, secret Christians like cryptic Jews embraced Buddhism, but introduced Christian beliefs in it.

In 1868 when the Emperor gained power, hidden Christians reemerged after 200 years. And they could openly practice Christianity again. But the religious cleansing and the closure of Japan to the outside world did its work. And so they remain a very small minority today.

But Christians in Kansai were not spared further suffering. For the plutonium bomb that the Americans dropped on 9 August 1945 wiped out a goodly number of Japanese Christians, and those who survived bore the scars of radiation.

In all, 'Silence' is worth seeing. And better yet, reading Shusaku's excellent novel.