As a friend of mine put it, while Silence is a sincere cry from the heart, it is still "problematic as cinema." This isn't to say that it's a bad movie, not by any measure, but that Scorsese sacrifices pacing and general economy of story telling in order to make the most complete rendering of the source material possible. This was a labor of love for the 74 year old director, who had been working for 20 years to get this project realized. I doubt that any editor, even Thelma Schoonmaker, who has been cutting films with Scorsese for 40 years, was going to have the guts to buck him here, which she probably should have, at least a little.
In the end though, Silence isn't a pop corn movie and no one should go expecting to be entertained. It is a meditation on faith, martyrdom and conscience. But this only scratches the surface. In truth, different people will walk away from this movie and grasp on to different themes. Cardinal Blase Cupich saw it as asking the viewer what is left after all the external expressions of faith have been stripped away - what is it that a person holds on to? Scorsese himself wrote, in a forward to a reprinting of the novel, that he was taken up with the question of Judas' role in the Divine plan. Jesus' mission couldn't have been completed without him, yet he is a reviled figure. This was a major theme of his adaptation of The Last Temptation of Christ, and Silence contains a very strong Judas character, whose betrayals are exasperating, but are also important in keeping the narrative moving ahead. So, what Silence may lack in conventional cinematic structure, it makes up for in its powerful, multi layered themes.
Silence follows two young Jesuit priests named Rodrigues and Garupe (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver, respectively) who take upon themselves the mission to go to Japan in search of another Jesuit, Fr. Ferreira (Liam Neeson), who is missing and has possibly apostatized. It's the early 1600's, and after great initial success in spreading the Catholic faith in that country, the Japanese authorities have outlawed Christianity, expelling all European missionaries and systematically destroying the practice of the faith among the people. What Rodrigues and Garupe find are small, faithful communities, worshiping as they can in secret, led by laymen. They are overjoyed by the arrival of the priests, because, even though they can baptize, the lay leaders are unable to celebrate the Eucharist or hear confessions. Our missionaries are kept busy with both tasks, especially hearing confessions, as well as engaging in catechism classes. Eventually they are found out, need to flee, and are separated. The story then focuses on Rodrigues, who is captured and finally does encounter Fr. Ferreira.
As with all the secret Christians, Rodrigues and Ferreira are given the choice of renouncing their faith to save their earthly lives. This renunciation takes the form of either stepping or spitting upon a holy image of Jesus or the Blessed Mother. Their captives are clear, they don't have to mean it, this is just a formality. Nonetheless they need the priests' public renunciation in order to discourage the people from following the faith. For their part, it is the suffering of the native Christians that is used as a weapon against the missionaries in order to coerce them into apostasy. The priests are made to choose between their love of Christ and their love for the people they have come to serve.
The question I found myself asking is, "What would I do?" Is my faith in life after earthly death strong enough to accept that kind of suffering, and, more importantly, could I encourage others to suffer horrendous tortures while I sat and watched, or would I tell them to give in, and save themselves? Which course of action is truly Christ like, which is vainglorious, and which is cowardly betrayal? Scorsese doesn't judge harshly, but in one telltale sound effect, amid a soundtrack that generally lives up to the movie's title, tells you all you need to know.
As a side note, I did see a review by a Jesuit film critic that criticized the portrayal of the young priests as being overly idealistic and lacking in humanity. I tend to interpret the lack of humanity charge as a dog whistle regarding chastity. It's true that we don't get a sense of either internal or external struggles the priests may be experiencing in relation to sexual temptations. There are priests who apostatize and are forced to take wives, and we don't see any tenderness between the couples. I think that the answer to the first observation is that this isn't "that" movie. To begin dealing with a chastity crisis is to alter the focus of the movie to the point that we would have a different story. It might be an important story to tell, but not here in an already thematically cluttered production.
As for the apparent lack of "passion" within these marriages of convenience, the missionaries understand that these unions are just further humiliations heaped upon them on the part their "hosts." They represent a further betrayal, a further being "knocked down a peg," in the eyes of the people. Celibacy, for better or worse, adds the mystic of the Catholic priesthood, setting the cleric a part from the "average" man. With that gone, it is one further piece of his identity that has been wiped away. So while the priests in question may "go the way of human flesh," it's not something that they are going to be comfortable with, much less be proud of.
If I am wrong, and the critic in question is commenting on the overall performance of the actors, than I'm afraid that we weren't watching the same movie. They are young priests, full of zeal and idealism, as young priests often are. This is what drove them in search of Fr. Ferriera, in spite of the dangers, to begin with. But I do believe we see their frailty as their sufferings, and the pressure of their situation, increase. I thought that this was one of the most accurate representations of the priesthood on film that I've seen since the Exorcist. While both films deal with priests in extreme situation, situations that most priests will never find themselves in, they accurately show the struggles that a priest goes through. That a priest may struggle with living the life of a celibate should shock no one, but that they may also question their faith and the meaning of their lives may be a revelation: one that in the end is a greater demonstration of our protagonists humanity.
There is much more to write, and I will offer a fuller reflection soon.
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