Silence - Martin Scorceses's new Film

Martin Scorcese, filmmaker extraordinaire, has a new film. A project he's been working on for 20 years, based on Shūsaku Endō's (A Japanese Christian) eponymus novel, it deals with the persecution of Christian Missionaries in Feudal Japan. It centers on two Jesuit Missionaries (Andrew "Spider-Man" Garfield and Adam "Kylo Ren" Driver) trying to discover the whereabouts of their Historical Domain Character mentor (Liam "Qui-Gon Jinn" Neeson) in 17th century Japan whilst trying to spread the word of God under heavy persecution by the Shogunate.

Here's the first trailer:

Here's a direct link in case the embbed doesn't work

The story of Christianity in Japan is one that really deserves to be told. Kind of sad they went about picking Brits, Americans and an Irishman for a bunch of Portuguese characters but I'm willing to forgive that in light of LIAM NEESON. As a fan of Scorcese's work and a Catholic, I am stoked.

edited 23rd Nov '16 8:01:37 AM by Gaon

So wait, Spider-Man and Kylo Ren teams up to find Qui-Gonn?

Is an official, Disney crossover movie?

I'm going to see this over the weekend. I think it looks really good if the trailer is anything to go by. Has anyone seen it? How is it?

Some reviews:

(I believe the first one has some spoilers)

here's a direct link

edited 22nd Jan '17 10:38:29 PM by Gaon

Watched it today. It's nice to see (and it was necessary for him) Scorsese doing the inverted approach to The Wolf of Wall Street, namely in termos of visuals and audios (the absence of popular music, with the only musical sound being very brief score snippets meant to emphasize certain key scenes, and the use/contrast of both heavy and quite beautiful natural visuals with some post-production effects to emphasize some of the more violent scenes). It's not difficult to see why it was nominated for the Oscar for best cinematography.

My one nitpick would be the 'son/sun' comparison made by Liam Neeson's character, which is something that is only fit for the English language (since the main characters are Portuguese, the comparison is a bit non-sensical - not to mention said comparison sounds like something that is straight out of one of those idiotic books that says 'Jesus is totes Horus, you guys!', but I digress).

As for the themes, well, it's got many of the things I like to read about: history, political systems and their interplay/contrast with religion, religious discrimination, guilt, confession, Christian love, sacrifice and the knowledge of its cost, local customs and how they mix with religious traditions, and so forth.

I generally liked the actors' performance, and the characters are mostly solid and well developed.

A great movie and definitely worth watching, especially in this day and age of religious and secular tensions.

edited 28th Jan '17 7:32:03 PM by Quag15

Disappointed to see that this film has only the attention of 5 tropers so far... I thought the forums would've been more interested in this one. But then again, I literally didn't even know about this film's existence until three weeks ago when I received an offer for a discounted ticket if I purchased it online from Regal Theaters, so who am I to judge? Doubly so since it's a film with religion placed front and center, and didn't advertise itself as being overly negative towards the Christian faith... at least, not at first.

Now as for the film itself, I will say this after seeing it with my mother as company. For a piece that can be seen as absolutely critical and damning of the mindset that most Christian followers tend to carry when proselytizing, the fact that my mom (who typically reacts with disdain towards anything that doesn't glorify the church) loved it, says something good about the film's message. Heck, it got me and her talking for quite awhile as to what a Christian follower under threat of prosecution or death is actually capable of doing to avoid punishment, and she seemed to be OK with the film's conclusion.

Then things got interesting when the church she attended essentially disagreed with her. They viewed the film's message as troublesome, since apparently they put more value into a follower of Christ becoming a martyr and being willing to die without rejecting the faith, even if only publicly. To them, the willingness to die for the church is what makes it so attractive and inspires others in dire straights to convert. Also, they mentioned a quote from the bible. I've got no idea which verse it was since I wasn't there, but the gist of it (according to my mom) was that anyone who disowns Jesus in front of others will be disowned when finally facing judgement in heaven.

The internal bias in me wants to write off the church (especially my mom's particular congregation) as just being dense and close-minded again, but the other, more inquisitive part of me is now all sorts of curious. How would other faiths react to such a scenario as faced in this film? I strongly suspect most Muslims would hold strong to their faith, but would that also apply to the Jews? Mormons? Buddhists? Would some faiths even care about such shows of devotion, even within their own texts?

I wanted to see it, but by the time that a good day for me to see it came by, it was no longer in the theater. :( >.<

Same here. I really wanted to but I was in Hawaii and when I got back it was already gone...

(3) I'll be honest and admit I'm so bland that the above quote is the only part of this that really caught my attention. I haven't the foggiest who Martin Scorceses is and misread this thread's title as "Martin the Sorcerer's new Film" and had to click on it.

edited 14th Feb '17 3:15:26 PM by Soble

Scorcese, Taxi Driver, GoodFellas, Raging Bull, Gangs of New York, Hugo, The Wolf of Wall Street. One of the greatest filmmakers of our generation and such.

I think a lot of people just didn't know this movie was coming, it sort of showed up and was in theaters for two weeks. It seems more like one of Scorsese's personal projects, it's not really marketable and the only thing going for it is some reasonable names. It doesn't have the raw energy of Wolf of Wall Street.

Plus it's not the type of movie to resonate at all with those who don't enjoy the more cerebral types of flicks. And as I pointed out above, I wouldn't be surprised if certain parts of the religious community are trying to discourage their followers from seeing the film.

Besides all the other factors mentioned, the movie's central theme (religion) is a double-edged sword. Because it might be too "sacrilegious" for the more religious folk whilst also pushing away the non-religious who'd judge it as "just another religious film". It's suck between a rock and a hard place.

Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy was probably another major one. A lot of the box office analysts have been saying it came out at the worst possible time given the er...let's say colorful last few months we've been having in America. It was argued people are already so upset or pissed off that nobody wanted to see a really dark, bleak movie like this, particularly when the themes about religious intolerance and persecution hit close to home given what's going on right now. Which is a shame because it was great.

Just watched the movie and I really enjoyed it....well, not enjoyed, but appreciated. Mind you, I don't think the Martyr vs. Apostate acting to save lives argument is an easy one. After all, saying the latter is right makes all those peasants who died for their faith wrong and I disagree with that.

I will say I am stunned by some of the reviews which stated they sided with the "anti-colonialists" in the movie as apparently they think murdering people for their faith is justified by protecting culture. That's a monstrous view and nonsensical.

I couldn't agree more. It doesn't help the movie's conflict can feel very odd for a western, secularized society, so it's very easy to leap to the common "lol just step you fucking morons" because the audience member can't grasp the philosophical dilemma at hand.

But yeah, a lot of online comments have a highly unnerving xenophobia apologia ingrained in them. Probably because it's the Catholic Church.

Film's available (at least in Britain) on Amazon Prime's video thingy.