The power of faith

Rating: 9/10 (14 April 2017)

"Silence" is the last movie of Martin Scorsese, with only hear that name you expect something wonderful and in fact, this movie is wonderful.
The premise for the movie is simple but at the same time is intriguing and interesting; two Jesuit priests go to Japan (in the 17th century) to look for their mentor, who has been lost during the persecution to the Christians. I was captivated since the first time I saw something about this movie and I knew I have to see it in a cinema. Unfortunately, the movie came to my country until the last month of march but finally I saw it.
The film is amazing, from the first scene you can see how complex the movie will be and that scene is incredible, with a few minutes Scorsese has shown us how will the persecution against the Christians be, and introduced us the character of Ferreira (Liam Neeson), in that couple of minutes that we saw him and listen to him we define how we look him, if he is a strong man that will never abandon his faith or if he will because of the suffer that he see in his colleagues. All the scene gives more mystery to the beginning of the movie and puts Ferreira like a very important character.
Then we see our main character, the priest Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) that with his friend and colleague, the priest Garupe (Adam Driver), will go to Japan in search of Ferreira because of the rumor that he has abandon the Christian faith; since the beginning of their journey they are warned about the danger of the mission but they continue with the hope of find their mentor.
Once in Japan they find, with the help of Kichijiro (a Japanese that they found in China), a small village of Japanese Christians, here comes the first proof of the power of faith, the same Rodrigues tells that he was surprised with the faith of that people, people who embraced the Christian faith strongly. Here comes the part when we meet the "villains" of the film, Japanese people who not accept the Christian faith, and here is when the debate can start, Who were the bad guys? The Japanese people that want to preserve their religion and culture? Or the Christians, that go to other countries trying to convert the people to their faith? I won't discuss this because this is another issue but of course you can spend hours and hours talking with another person about this topic.
The rest of the story is incredible, and for me tells you about the power of faith, about how strong the faith of a man can be, about the faith that doesn't support itself in the material things, and talking about this, we see two different versions of men, the man who knows that this is true (that the material symbols of a religion are not the most important thing) a man like Rodrigues; and the conservative man like Garupe, that would die before insult one of this material symbol. We also see how much will a man suffer until give up to his faith and deny his god, which let the question to us, how much can we suffer until that? all that represented in the priest Ferreira.
Now, let's see the cinematic aspects, first the director. I haven't seen all the Martin Scorsese films but I like his style (at least in the movies I have seen) but I think that in this film he has overcome himself and has prove (by itself we did not have it clear) that he can do any kind of cinema and that, in my opinion, defines the best director. The direction is wonderful, it catch you since the first minute and doesn't let you go until the credits appear, tells the story in a sublime way and, being an almost three hours film, is not boring at anytime. Scorsese showed in the best way the two cultures that conflict. He gave to their characters (from Ferreira to Kichijiro) a very important role in the film, leaving a mark in the main character, Rodrigues. Another great point of the direction was rawness and hardness of some images, something necessary in this kind of stories.
The performances are spectacular, Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver make incredible performances that put them like good actors (in my opinion, the Andrew Garfield's performance here is better that his performance in "Hacksaw Ridge" (2016)). Liam Neeson is also great here, he represents wisdom but at the same time weakness.
The cinematography, by Rodrigo Prieto, is stunning, is so beautiful and with so many detail to the image. At least the Academy consider him for the Oscars and it maybe could have won but it had so many good movies in front.
For conclude, this movie also prove that the Oscars are not so important, because this film should have won many awards or at least have many nominations (best director and best motion picture in my opinion) but the time also hit this movie and is obvious that the Academy members doesn't watch all the movies. This is one of the best film of Martin Scorsese and I'm sure I will remember this film forever and I expect the world remember it too.