Salinger found god in ash-trays, Scorcese seeks him in soundlessness

Rating: 8/10 (25 January 2017)

Many people I have spoken with call Silence –http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0490215/– a must see performance and there are many cinematic reasons including dialog, interesting plot and screen shots that make this a terrific film. Some of the sequences could have been edited and thus shorten the film. The exchanges between the clergyman and the inquisitor –among the best features of the film for thoughtful viewers– could have been more frequent and revealing of the Asian / European divide when it comes to fathoming the role of faith in these two Portugal and Japan homogenous yet strikingly different ethnic, cultural, and religious societies. The performances while very believable are of characters who become too stereotypical given the numerous scenes of brutality displayed, as well as hinted at, in the course of the narrative. Among the best themes revealed in the dialog is the absence of divine intervention and the possible reasons for all that fear, torment, & suffering to which audiences are subjected by the scenes of torture and sacrifice. A clear, well-written script, delivered by very capable actors, accompanies beautifully photographed scenes. The story line does lack sufficient details to fully reveal the causes of what we witness in the film, unless of course Scorcese deliberately wanted us (like Job) to fully appreciate the senselessness of authoritarian extremism as much as he does the absence of divine grace. To the question "why do bad things happen to good people?' the movie leaves us with Silence.