Scorsese's unusual turn

Rating: 9/10 (15 June 2017)

Martin Scorsese is best known as the man behind "Taxi Driver", "Raging Bull", "Goodfellas" and "The Wolf of Wall Street". Lesser known are his movies that focus on religion. His first one was "The Last Temptation of Christ". Next was "Kundun" (about the early years of the Dalai Lama). Now he brings us "Silence", a work of historical fiction about some young priests investigating reports that their teacher apostatized after getting tortured in Japan in the 17th century. In addition to investigating this, the priests also seek to give moral support to Japan's Christians, who are getting persecuted by the government.
I had a couple of thoughts while watching the movie. I wondered what the Japanese thought of it. After all, the Japanese may have seen Christianity as an instrument of destroying their culture (which it was in the places that the European colonial powers invaded). Also, watching the torture that the Japanese inflicted on the Jesuits, I wondered why the Jesuits didn't just go ahead and renounce their faith. If someone did that to me, I'd say uncle in a second. True, Catholicism was the main part of the Jesuits' lifestyle, but how could anyone tolerate that torture?
In the end, I wouldn't call it Scorsese's greatest movie, but it's worth seeing. While Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver get top billing, I thought that Liam Neeson's character - based on real-life priest Cristóvão Ferreira - was the most interesting character. I'm eager to see what Marty's next movie will be.
I wonder how long it took to sail from Portugal to Japan.