Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

Silence
2016
**
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Tadanobu Asano, Ciarán Hinds, Liam Neeson, Shinya Tsukamoto, Issey Ogata, Yoshi Oida, Yōsuke Kubozuka

In the 17th century, two Portuguese Jesuit priests travel to Japan to find their mentor, who is rumoured to have renounced his faith. They discover a country where Christians are systematically persecuted and tortured until they agree to commit apostasy. Following The Last Temptation at Christ and Kundun, this adaptation of Shūsaku Endō's 1966 novel completes Martin Scorsese's unofficial trilogy on faith. He spent several decades bringing this deeply personal project to the screen, but the resulting drama appears to be for believers only. The film is visually arresting but the story is a painfully long, slow and monotonous slog through misery, and it didn't engage me at any point. The narration, for the most parts, is unnecessary.