Silence Was Practically Silent On The Themes

Rating: 8/10 (11 March 2017)

Martin Scorsese produces, directs and co-wrote the screenplay of a movie having themes of Japanese persecution of Christians in the 17th century entitled "Silence".It was based on the novel of Shūsaku Endō that was written back in the 1960's and it features Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver and Liam Neeson together with Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano.
The screenplay written by Jay Cocks and Scorsese tells the story of the two Portuguese Jesuit priests,Fr. Francisco Garupe and Fr.Sebastião Rodrigues to search for their missing fellow Portuguese Jesuit priest - Fr. Cristóvão Ferreira in Japan. Despite the fact that they heard that he already has renounced his faith,both Garupe and Rodrigues still pursued their search for him by pursuing their trip together with a Japanese alcoholic fisherman Kichijiro. Things did not look promising as they landed to a village wherein Christians are being killed by Japanese soldiers and the priests found themselves in jail.Later,Rodrigues was visited by Ferreira,who has already committed apostasy by renouncing his Catholic faith,in jail and convincing him to do likewise and Garupe himself getting killed.It ended with Rodrigues also committing apostasy by renouncing his faith to live as a Japanese pagan but surprisingly holding a cross when he got buried after death.
This movie should have been about people trying to be spiritual in times of stress and adversity.Added to that,it was also about the Japanese persecution of the Christians during the time of history when the story was told.Also added to the themes should be the pride and nationalism that the Japanese people are known to have throughout history.Also included is why the Japanese killed Christians was barely touched in a dialogue and nothing more was explored.
It was rather unfortunate that Scorsese's "Silence" never really tackled these themes the film was suppose to examine and it barely touched on them.Instead,it was a viewer was presented with a melodrama which touched heavily on the God's silence after prayer and a miracle that Rodrigues was asking from the Almighty God to give him a response on the question,"Should I give up my faith or not?". No question that receiving no response only made him give up his faith without examining his commitment as a priest.Added to that,the persecution of the Japanese Christians was barely touched as well.It just was presented to show the film's violence and nothing more. In the end,the movie was promising but it failed to deliver on the exploring the many themes it was suppose to present.