Faith vs Belief

Rating: 8/10 (5 February 2017)

Silence is one of the best pictures directed by Martin Scorsese. It's very well shot in the country side of Japan as well as the city of Nagasaki. The 17th century ambiance is created with great production design values.
Main story of the movie is about the Christianity vs Buddhism. However the spirit of the movie depicts the human triumph of ultimate faith in God.
Screenplay written by Martin and others is gripping and keeps the viewers at the edge of their seats. Though the length of the movie is 2 hour 40 minutes, not a single scene is boring. This time Martin chose a story that he can direct with the best of his capabilities and indeed he delivers the goods with an unflinching dedication.
The lead actor Andrew Garfield has acted profoundly well and the brief but significant appearance by Liam Neeson gives the movie a matured look. The Japanese actors are to be appreciated due to their fantastic support as the 95 percent of the movie is shot in Japan.
The movie is based on a book depicting a real story that took place around 1670 AD in Japan where two Portuguese Catholic missionaries set sail to Japan in search of their mentor who went to Japan for spreading the Catholicism there but got converted to Buddhism by Japanese. After reaching Japanese shores, they find out that the situation in Japan is dangerous for the Christians as the Catholicism was outlawed and the Japanese inquisitor is making all of the Christians in Japan to give up their faith in Jesus by making them stepping on Jesus' idol and surrender themselves or be tortured and die. It's not just about the conflicts between religious beliefs of people belonging to different geographical places, but the testing of the faith itself. How the faith leads the victory makes the crux of the story.
I enjoyed this movie better than Martin Scorsese's previous movies like The Departed, The Aviator, Shutter Island, and old movies like Raging Bull, Casino, Good Fellas. After making a long list of movies with Leonardo DiCaprio, and waiting for 4 years after The Wolf of Wall Street, he comes up with a new star-cast (No Leo!) in this movie which gives a fresh feeling.
As the tagline suggests, sometimes silence is the deadliest sound, one can only hear God in the Silence. Silence makes a great contender at the Oscars this year. Let's wait and see how many awards it will win competing with La La Land, Moon Light, and Hidden Figures!!