A Long, Long, Long, Long, Long Masterpiece.

Rating: 8/10 (15 January 2017)

Martin Scorsese has been trying to make Silence for over 25 years, to call it a passion project does not do it justice. It was while riding a bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto on the way to film a cameo in an Akira Kurosawa movie that Scorsese finished the book that his movie would be based on. All of this shortly after he had finished one of his if not his most controversial movie The Last Temptation of Christ. Since then Silence has been through all types of development hell, constantly being pushed back by movies like Gangs of New York, The Avaitor, Shutter Island and The Departed. It was once set to star Daniel Day-Lewis, Benicio del Toro, and Gael García Bernal which just makes me all types of sad that we did not get to see that movie. Silence is finally here, from that 1989 trip to Japan to 2017, Scorsese has gotten to make his "passion project" and he has put all he has into it, the good and the bad of the genius that is Martin Scorsese.
The story is about two Portuguese Jesuit priests (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver) who learn that their teacher, Father Cristóvão Ferreira (Liam Neeson) has publicly renounced his faith in public in Japan. The two priests cannot believe such news and travel to Japan to find Father Ferreira and prove that this news is false. Christianity has been outlawed in Japan and is investigated and eliminated by a man called "the inquisitor". Upon arriving in Japan, both men are shown how horribly Christians are treated there and go through bouts of lost faith. The movie is very well written, other than the length of the movie which I will get into later. For being such a long movie about a seemingly a bit dull topic these days, it moves very well. Other than a few key scenes the movie is always moving forward, but this is not only because of the writing.
Martin Scorsese is one of the greatest directors of his generation, if not all time. His movies have influences countless others and pushed the idea of what movies could be. The master does not slip up in Silence where he puts some of his best work in recent years. The Wolf of Wall Street was incredibly made, but I think Silence is a step ahead when it comes to Scorsese's directing. The movie is presented beautifully, and then we are treated to some astonishingly difficult to watch scenes. There is a level of realism that can only be attained by the best, you are drawn into this world and once you are let out you wont be able to get your mind off it. Scorsese has also always been a director who gets amazing performances out of his actors and Silence is no exception.
If there was an acting award that could be given to the cast of a movie as a whole my vote would be for it to go to Silence. Not only is Andrew Garfield putting up the best performance of his career, not only is Adam Driver a strong supporting actor but there were countless Japanese actors in Silence that were absolutely fantastic. Tadanobu Asano as the Japanese interpreter, Yōsuke Kubozuka as Kichijiro and Issey Ogata as Inoue Masashige all play key roles and play the hell out of them. This movie is packed full of emotion from some characters, but others take the events with a level of normalcy that must have been difficult to perform as well.
My biggest complaint with Silence is the length. 2 hours and 41 minutes is ridiculously long, and I know Mr. Scorsese has earned the right to make his movies as long as he wants, but this movie would surely have been a 9 out of 10 if it were about 20 minutes shorter. Other than that Silence is an incredibly made movie, and maybe the best piece of cinema from 2016. The massive length also kind of adds into the mystique of the movie, and while I found my time to move fairly fast I can see others struggling through it. Silence is also not an easy watch because of some of the intense scenes involving torture, but these were both not very graphically violent and very necessary. Would this movie be better if it had been made in 2009 with del Toro, Bernal and Daniel Day-Lewis I do not know. What I do know is that this one is an amazing movie and a must see for any fan of cinema.