Makes it Point Perfectly but Prolonged...Too Self-Indulgent & Obvious

Rating: 7/10 (26 July 2017)

Long, Indulgent to a Fault, but Beautifully Crafted "Tale of the Christ", Told through the Trials and Tribulations of Catholic Missionary Men in 17th Century Japan and the Resistance by the Rulers and the Sometime Conversion by the Peasants.
It's a Grueling, Gut-Wrenching Film and looks like a "Labor of Love" from Director Scorsese, and is Certainly a Commentary on the Labor that it takes and the Toll it Requires to be a Lover of a God who is Not in Geographic or Cultural Fashion.
The Faith or Religion of Choice almost Always Demands Pure Devotion and can Not Tolerate anything but a Singular Compliance to Doctrine, Dogma, and Devotion Restricted to the Confines of the Conventional.
It is a Frustrating, Feeble, and Foregone Conclusion about Religion that is and was so Powerful that it Grips its Followers in a Fatalism Followed to the Death, Enduring all means of Torture, Oppression, and Imprisonment unless the Faith is Denied among Witnesses.
The Parallels to Today in Certain Situations cannot be Denied. Things have been this way since Organized Religion Replaced Paganism, Scorsese seems to be Saying. Here's a Look at it in a Far Away Land in a Far Distant Time, so it's Safe to Ponder.
But the Obvious seems Oblivious to Scorsese and the Movie takes 2Hr 40 Minutes and Wallows in the Unpleasantness Repeatedly. By the Time it is Over the Obvious is a Confirmation and the Viewer has Learned what is Already Known.
Religion is Renowned for Reducing its Flock to Scared Sycophants who Grovel with Fear of either a Silent "God", or Grotesque Human Beings with the Power of "God" Behind Them.
The Film makes the Point Perfectly, but Prolonged.