For a Non-Believer This Movie Is a Slog

Rating: 4/10 (30 August 2017)

It's my own fault. I broke my own rule about watching religious movies, so I shouldn't have been surprised that I was bored to tears by "Silence." I don't believe in God, and religion plays absolutely no role in my life. I think the Bible is mythology, created for the same reason mythology existed for other cultures -- to explain things about the world that are otherwise unexplainable. That religion is important to the vast majority of humans does not bother me. I have nothing against those who practice. But I'm not moved by stories of faith or the struggles of those who undergo religious doubt, because for me there's about as much worth in expending mental energy trying to decide whether or not Tinkerbell is real.
I didn't care about anybody in "Silence," Martin Scorsese's ambitious dud of a movie. I certainly didn't care much about the main protagonist, a priest played by Andrew Garfield, because his primary conflict is trying to understand why God stays silent in the face of so much human misery. Well that question for me was answered before the movie even began, so I certainly didn't need 2 and a half hours of pontification about it. I felt the most for the Japanese people who weren't allowed to practice Catholicism by a brutal regime who would torture and kill them if they did not reject it, because I believe people should be able to worship however they want. But this all happened so long ago and it all remains so abstract and Scorsese was not able to bring it alive in any compelling way.
Nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar.
Grade: C