The Best Movie I Have Ever Seen! (Read until SPOIL is read if you do not want spoilers.)

Rating: 10/10 (28 January 2019)

I am a cinephile, and a Christian as well. Both God and movies are very important to me, and I show that by placing all Christian movies above all of my favorite movies. And Silence tops all of them all as the best.
Martin Scorsese is my favorite director, even though I don't like The Wolf of Wall Street due to the over the top profanity and graphic nudity-and Shutter Island's middle dragged a bit. But that said, there are many great works of his, and this is the icing on the cake to me.
I first heard about it a couple of years ago, and I was excited about him making a Christian movie-I happen to also adore his controversial yet uplifting The Last Temptation of Christ. (I wrote a review of that too-link below.)
I later found Silence on DVD and watched it with my Grandma-who enjoyed it but decided that she would never see it again.
Silence is about 2 missionaries, one played by Andrew Garfield and another by Adam Driver. They go to Japan when they hear that their mentor(played by Liam Neeson) has renounced his Christian faith. With no other way to confirm this, they travel to the country and face persecution, along with the small amount of Japanese Christians.
They have to then renounce their faith for the government by doing acts such as stepping on religious icons or spitting on crosses. And if they refuse, they are tortured to death. Andrew Garfield's character holds onto his faith, but it turns out that it may be harder than he thought it would be.
Silence is very violent-which is a factor to consider in seeing this- there are people burned alive, be-headings, crucifixions, drownings, etc. It's not as harsh as The Passion of the Christ, but it can be just as heartbreaking.
You do not watch Silence to "enjoy" it, even though it's great and very moving. You watch Silence to experience the reality of religious persecution, and to learn how hard keeping faith can be.
Here, I have to SPOIL something. Andrew Garfield's character actually steps on a picture of Jesus after he hears Him allow it since He knows his actual heart. However, we see in the end(I won't say how) that he faked it and really HELD unto his faith.(Hint hint.)
I told someone I know at church who is against R rated movies about Silence and she refused to try seeing it just because of that. Yes, it's hard and sad to watch this happen, but think about how much Garfield endures for his faith.
It's a harsh reality that he would do that, but it IS a reality for some people. This raises an important question: what would YOU do?
That is another positive about Silence-it asks many questions and leaves them unanswered for you to answer yourself. Questions like: Is faith worth giving up? What if it benefits another? Does God forgive those who fake giving up their faith? Should you teach your faith to those who do not believe?
If you want to learn more about Silence, I suggest going on You Tube and looking up "The Movie Proposal Episode 12 Silence." Here, 3 Christians discuss their thoughts on the movie-and one calls it the "best Christian movie, period."(This is part of what makes it my favorite movie.)
This sums up the main ideas of how I feel about this religious masterpiece, though I could say much more(That You Tube video will help me more.) It's a movie all Christians, and just about everyone else, must see. And good for Martin Scorsese for making this right after The Wolf of Wall Street!