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Silence tells
the story of two 17th
Century Portuguese priests played by Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver
who find out some horrible news. Not that their religious
organisation is riddled with pedophiles and child-rape victims, but
something much worse than that! Rumour has reached them that their
old mentor Liam Neeson has travelled to Japan and somehow discovered
some common sense, or as they say, “he's apostasized”. They decide
to travel to Japan themselves in order to track him down and find
out if it's true. The only catch is that Japan has literally no time
for their bullshit religion, with an inquisitor dedicated to finding
God's minions and either forcing them to denounce their
megalomaniacal sky wizard or face torture and death instead. One of
the ways in which the suspected Christians must prove their lack of
faith is by stepping on a picture of Jesus's face, which proves
surprisingly hard for them to do. If they pass that test but the
inquisitor still isn't satisfied then they have to spit on an
ornament of Jesus on the cross and call Mary “a whore”. Basically
just the kind of thing us atheists to do relax on a Friday night I
suppose. In fact, the first thing I did after the film was over was
purchase myself a novelty Jesus door mat to clean your feet on in
order to try and keep away any nuisance Jehovah witnesses. For the
sake of balance, I'd get one of Muhammad too except, you know.. I'm not
a fucking idiot.
Once
the two priests arrive in Japan, they quickly discover quite how
hostile things are and so find themselves quickly separated and
hidden by the local villagers. From here the film essentially just
follows Andrew Garfield in which he spends the bulk of his time
having theological debates with everybody he bumps into whilst
imagining that he himself might be a bit like Jesus. Of course we've
all seen Garfield debate theology before, although this time it gets a
little more in-depth than simply “with great power comes great
responsibility”, although arguably that's what it all boils down to
again. As such, the film touches upon everything from the nature of
faith, man's responsibility to man, imperialism, and politics, with
the whole thing ultimately hinging on the silence of God. Had I been
hiding with Garfield in one of those villages I'd have been able to
answer his question a lot more quickly than the film does, by simply
suggesting, “It's coz he doesn't exist, mate. Now, would you like a
fucking cheeseburger too?”. However due to the film's decision to
not include my contemporary self in some Bill And Ted style
time travel plot, the whole thing becomes a giant three hour chat
instead. In fact, considering that the themes, and debating the themes
of the movie, are prioritised over plot, you could probably just remake
this movie as a Powerpoint presentation. At least you tend to get
tea and biscuits with a Powerpoint presentation too!
Not
that I'm saying I'd prefer the Powerpoint presentation, of course.
Scorsese wildly holds back his usual kinetic style in favour of a
quieter camera that allows the conversations to unfold much more
naturally. As much as I love to see a bit of clip art in a
presentation, I suppose nothing can really compare to the misty
Japanese landscape as Scorsese pays tribute to the Kurosawa-esque
mysticism of the country... except maybe that funny paper clip with
eyeballs. Also, we get to see Andrew Garfield with messy hair and
if that doesn't scream cinema then I don't know what does! Speaking
of Garfield, the film has come under criticism for having him play a
Portuguese character by speaking English with a Portuguese accent. It
probably didn't help the matter that occasionally his accent would slip
back into his regular one, either. A problem that was probably only
made a little more confusing by Liam Neeson's decision to play a
Portuguese man by speaking English with a very definitive Liam Neeson
accent. Although fuck it.. if Christianity can depict their
middle-eastern Jesus as a Robert Powell-esque white bloke for
hundreds of years and get away with it then who really gives a shit, I
suppose.
At
just under three hours I'd by lying if I said that I didn't consider
the film a bit of a slog to get through at times. When rifling
through Scorsese's back catalogue, it certainly tests the patience a
little more than the giggles you can have when watching him pop
somebodies eye by squishing their head in a vice in Casino. However Silence
was never less than interesting
in the points that it raised and I was pleased to see the ambiguity
of which it dealt with its conundrums. I took a lapsed Christian to
see this movie and I was worried that the film was essentially going
to be a propaganda machine that coached him back into dealing with
denial. I once spent ninety minutes explaining to him about why the
'faith healing' he'd attended was actually one of the most evil and
exploitative things around and I didn't want that time to go to
waste. A religious person could watch this film and see it as a
message of the power of faith as the characters remain devoted to
their belief despite the pain inflicted on them. I however just see
the trouble that religion can bring as Garfield's mission results in
death, destruction, and anguish. At one point, an eagle flies past the
priests to which Adam Driver announces, “It is a message from God”.
Maybe a religious person would see that as being the point intended
by the film. I however just see an eagle doing what eagles do, with
the two priests simply clutching at straws and ignoring the term
'confirmational bias'.
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