Speechless...

Rating: 9/10 (6 June 2020)

What can I say about Martin Scorsese that hasn't already been said. He is an astounding director who's explored many different genres of film but Silence unveiled a side of Scorsese which I haven't seen.
Silence tells the story of two Portuguese priests who travel to Japan in search of their mentor, who has been said to have apostatised the Christian faith, as well as spread Christianity to the residents of Japan.
This film conveyed to me the diversity of Scorsese's skills as a director. A lot of his previous films arefast paced and made to entertain the audience. Silence separates itself from that body of work due to its much slower pacing and intense atmosphere which general audience won't enjoy. It's inevitable for some people to feel bored throughout. This is a movie that isn't made for a high box office collection but rather to respect cinema as an art form.
Silence is a journey. An emotionally intense journey that studies humanity and religion as a whole. We see our main character Rodrigues, played by Andrew Garfield, go through a huge amount of turmoil as he becomes a man who believed in his faith as strongly as possible to someone who's completely broken and torn about his beliefs. This is possibly Scorsese's best looking film. The lighting, camerawork is absolutely sublime. Rodrigo Prieto did the cinematography for this film as well Scorsese's other films like The Wolf of Wall Street. He did an unbelievable job here. The writing by Jay Cocks and Martin Scorsese is brilliant and captures the 17th Century time period really well.
Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver are superb here. Whilst Driver isn't as prominent in this film as Garfield, he still makes a huge impression overall. Words cannot describe how good Garfield is here. After seeing him in The Social Network and Under the Silver Lake, this adds to his collection of brilliant performances. Liam Neeson isn't in the film much but he's still good for the time he's on-screen. The Japanese cast are all spectacular and bring a great amount of authenticity overall.
Silence is another example of Scorsese's talent. This is an emotionally draining film filled with many scenes that can be difficult to watch. I do wish the pacing was better during the first act as it wasn't as engaging compared to the other two acts but Silence overall is an encapsulating experience that will you speechless.