Review: Silence is the Sound of Suffering.
- Feb 24, 2017
- 3 min read
Silence is about two battles, the physical and the spiritual. It's about the nature of man and how far men will go to stay true to what they believe. The real question is, how far will you go to sit in one place for three hours?
Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson) has gone missing in Japan and rumours of him denouncing his faith have made there way to the church. Fathers Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garupe (Adam Driver) are dispatched to find him but there's a little problem. For over a decade the Japanese have been torturing and executing Christians, for reasons the film leaves untold (more on this later) and the priests will be stepping into one of the most dangerous countries in the 17th century. They are taken in and hidden by a small Christian village but there presence will not remain unnoticed forever.
Martin Scorsese, considered by many to be one of the greatest living directors, turns his hand to one of the most turbulent and oppressive times in history and, for the most part, he nails it. One cannot fault the direction here, for it is flawless but where it succeeds, other elements fall behind. Silence is far too long and the protagonists, our windows into this world, are poorly acted and difficult to side with.
Andrew Garfield, fresh off his other religious film that features physical brutality, though of another kind, provides the audience with an insight into what's happening. Unfortunately he brings along an awful accent and a more than bland performance that fails to inspire anyone. He is out-acted by everyone else, with the exception of Adam Driver who serves no real purpose to the film as a whole. Between the heartfelt performances of the Japanese actors and the small but powerful part of Liam Neeson, Garfield is forgettable, lost amongst more colourful characters with deeper flaws and more human traits.
The films biggest fault though, lies not in its characters but in its plot. While the overall story is told well, at least until the last twenty minutes when it switches to a long narrated segment, it is mostly boring. Very little happens in the films three hour run time and I feel much of it could have been cut to create a superior film. It also fails to give any reason to the persecution of Christians in Japan.
Time for a history lesson. In 1937 a group of Catholic peasants rose up against against their leaders after increased taxation and some persecution. The ensuing conflict in the Nagasaki province, the same area in which the film takes place, led to the deaths of almost 30000 and was one of a number of such uprisings. The rebellion shook the Japanese so much that they subsequently enforced what was a relatively lax law against Christianity in an attempt to prevent such an event from occurring again. Not only this but they also heavily monitored any European traders who intended to enter Japan. These events, which arguably justify some of the actions of the Japanese, are entirely ignored in an effort to vilify and entire country. It's a sad fact but one that should be known, Silence doesn't care for its own history, only for itself.
There is not a lot one can say about Silence without ruining some of the more compelling moments and it's certainly worth watching for those but it is a film that has grown heavy with its own ideas. Perhaps better served as a TV series, allowing characters time to grow and certain events to be played out to their fullest, it would have faired better but as it stands, wait for it to hit stores.
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