Silence (2016) [Movie Review]



Dir: Martin Scorcese
Starring: Liam Neeson, Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver
Dur: 2 hrs 42 mins
Genre: Drama
PG: People are shown enduring torture and death
Rating: 6/10

The name of the film reflects adroitly its nature. It tells the dramatic story of the last two Jesuit missionaries to Japan. The film is perhaps only the second of its kind after Mission, which depicts the life of Jesuits missionaries in South America, and hence the director and crew need to be commended for their choice of bringing this story to the silver screen. The film may not appeal to non-Christians as it is explicitly Christian in words and gestures but it does have some star power. Andrew and Adam Driver are brilliant. The story is poignant and startling at once. It is bound to leave ‘grounded’ people (I mean people who are knowledgeable and passionate about the faith) like myself, shocked. It took me a few days to overcome my initial shock and some of the effects still linger.

I don’t want to spoil it for those who haven’t seen the film but every Christian, in my opinion must take the time to view the film. It is challenging yet real. It gives a pretty good description of what it is like to be Christian under persecution. The background is 19th century Japan. Two young and zealous Jesuit priests beseech their superior to permit them to go to Japan in search of their mentor and idol, who is believed to have apostatized. Their adventures are the substance of the film. The dialogues are strong and potent but it is the actions that really make an impression. The outcome is shocking and true to the facts.

The film has some good stuff to offer. There is plenty to reflect about. For starters, one can reflect on whether or not one takes one’s faith for granted. The film is rather long but the experiences of the people depicted in it are sure to tug at heart strings.   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Great Grand Masti 2 (2016) (Movie Review)

Image
Dir: Indra Kumar Starring: Vivek Oberoi, Riteish Deshmukh, Aftab Shivdasani, Urvashi Rautela Dur: 2 hrs 10 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: 1/10 Comment: The jokes, gestures and costumes are sexually suggestive. An absolute waste of time. “What an opening line”, you might think. But to say otherwise would be an absolute lie. This film is in fact, a great grand waste of time. It’s horrible whichever way you look at it. The story is weak and thrives on cheap thrills and sorry jokes. The actresses are no doubt eye-catching but the rest is all a blur. The comedy is in fact tragedy and the film attempts to play on the basest desires of man. It’s unbelievable that actors like Riteish and Vivek would do such a film. I am not a big fan of bollywood but I still feel bad when I see bollywood making films like these. All of a sudden, I see that sex is being propagated through Indian cinema. The views of sex are changing and filmmakers and actors are not hesitating to take on unconvent
Read more

St. Joseph: A Father after the Father's Heart (Book Review)

Image
  St. Joseph: A Father after the Father’s Heart , Hyderabad: Don Bosco Publishing House, 2021, Rs. 150, pp. 240. The book is a compilation of articles from various authors writing about qualities of St. Joseph. They have used the litany of St. Joseph as an index and have put together articles on each of the invocations. All the contributors are Salesians from different parts of India but there a couple of contributors from abroad as well. The book lends itself to be a souvenir of the Year of St. Joseph that Pope Francis declared. Let me start out by commenting on the quality of production. The paper is of good quality and so is the design and layout. It is neat and has an attractive cover. Coming to the content, it gets rather repetitive but that is understandable considering that there is so little Biblical foundation for an exposition of St. Joseph. The articles often reference Pope Francis’ letter Patris Corde and extensively utilize Pope St. John Paul II’s apostolic exhortatio
Read more

A Day with Don Bosco

                              Don Bosco was declared the Patron of Youth by Pope John Paul II in 1989. He received his mission: to be Father to the young, in a dream at the tender age of nine. He nurtured this call throughout his life and never wasted an opportunity to gather boys and direct them to God. He did not do this as a spiritual director, (at least no at first!) but rather as a friend, a companion and a seminarian. As a young boy, he would attract youngsters with his magic tricks, tightrope skills, games etc and then get them to recite the rosary with him or recount to them the Sunday sermon (which he remembered thanks to his prodigious memory). Already then, he had ingeniously found a way to combine religion and entertainment. His entertainment was necer for entertainment sake but rather a façade or an advertisment for religious instruction. Even as a young priest, boys would long for more than just a wekkly encounter with him. They loved him and found in him a friend w
Read more