History Film / Silence

* SympathyForTheHero: Grand Inquisitor Inoue is shown to have genuine respect and even sympathy towards Rodrigues. He is of course more than willing to torture him and the Christians he converted but he admits to sincerely acknowledging their willingness to maintain his faith as being admirable and even offers him repeatedly to just aposthetize and end his suffering. He is also apparently this towards Ferreira, as he is clearly displeased over having to use the Pit on him and patiently gives him time to harden himself to step on the fumi-e. Inoue also makes it apparent he is aware that they have never truly given up on their faiths and rather than ensure they completely break, he instead allows them to keep their faith in secret and does nothing to stop their secret efforts to keep the Hidden Christians safe, having essentially promised and lived up to his own end of the deal that the Japanese authorities will no longer condemn them as long as they remain a minority, even going as far as to outright reveal it and humbly deny that it was he who defeated Rodrigues, but the entire land of Japan.

In the 17th century, the Jesuit mission in Japan is facing severe setbacks from the Tokugawa Shogunate who is not only persecuting UsefulNotes/{{Japanese Christian}}s but making them apostatize. One of their priests, Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson), a respected member of the clergy, has already apostatized and is currently helping the government persecute Christians. In response to this shocking turn of events, two young Portuguese Jesuit priests, Father Sebastião Rodrigues (Garfield) and Father Francisco Garupe (Driver) are dispatched to learn what happened to Ferreira and to continue the mission of preaching Christ's message to the persecuted UsefulNotes/{{Japanese Christian}}s.

* BreakTheBeliever: What the Japanese authorities try to do. They want to force priests to apostatize. [[spoiler: They largely succeed. Only Garupe never gives in, and goes to his death trying to save his Christian converts. The other three major Christian characters all eventually apostatize and renounce their faith under torture (more specifically, the Japanese know the priests are zealous and ready for martyrdom, so, in addition to torturing the priests, they exploit the priests' compassion by torturing ''others'' until they apostatize). However, of the three, none of them actually gives up their faith completely, and they continue to believe in secret. This is true of Rodrigues and Ferreira, and even the treacherous Kichijiro, who ''repeatedly'' apostatizes but is still implied to believe and is eventually killed for his faith.]]

--> '''[[spoiler: Jesus]]''': "Come ahead now. It's alright. Step on me. I understand your pain."

--> '''[[spoiler: Jesus]]''': "Come ahead now. It's alright."

* BreakTheBeliever: What the Japanese authorities try to do. They want to force priests to apostatize. [[spoiler: They largely succeed. Only Garupe never gives in, and goes to his death trying to save his Christian converts. The other three major Christian characters all eventually apostatize and renounce their faith under torture (more specifically, the Japanese know the priests are zealous and ready for martyrdom, so they exploit their compassion by torturing ''others'' until the priests apostatize). However, of the three, none of them actually gives up their faith completely, and they continue to believe in secret. This is true of Rodrigues and Ferreira, and even the treacherous Kichijiro, who ''repeatedly'' apostatizes but is still implied to believe and is eventually killed for his faith.]]

* BreakTheBeliever: What the Japanese authorities try to do. They want to force priests to apostatize. [[spoiler: They largely succeed. Only Garupe never gives in, and goes to his death trying to save his Christian converts. The other three major Christian characters all eventually apostatize and renounce their faith under torture (more specifically, the Japanese know the priests are zealous and ready for martyrdom, but exploit their compassion by torturing ''others'' until the priests apostatize). However, of the three, none of them actually gives up their faith completely, and they continue to believe in secret. This is true of Rodrigues and Ferreira, and even the treacherous Kichijiro, who ''repeatedly'' apostatizes but is still implied to believe and is eventually killed for his faith.]]

* TheBadGuyWins: In the end, [[spoiler:Inquisitor Inoue manages to break Rodrigues and cause him to apostatize in order to save others from a horrible death, and then forces him to live out the rest of his days in Japan, unable to practice Christianity and never allowed to leave. It's all but stated that Rodrigues secretly held onto his faith for the rest of his life and the Hidden Christians avoid more persecution, but Inoue ends up getting everything he wants.]] The persecutions' goal is achieved in that Christianity does not become a major religion in Japan, albeit neither is it completely uprooted either, as a small, and in Inoue's view, harmless version will survive, albeit one that doesn't resemble the European idea of Christianity.

* BreakTheBeliever: What the Japanese authorities try to do. They want to force priests to apostatize. [[spoiler: They largely succeed. Only Garupe never gives in, and goes to his death trying to save his Christian converts. The other three major Christian characters all eventually apostatize and renounce their faith under torture (more specifically, the Japanese know the priests are zealous and ready for martyrdom, but exploit their compassion by torturing ''others'' until the priests apostatize). However, of the three, none of them actually give up their faith completely, and continue to believe in secret. This is true of Rodrigues and Ferreira, and even the treacherous Kichijiro, who ''repeatedly'' apostatizes but is still implied to believe and is eventually killed for his faith.]]