Silence Movie Review

  Martin Scorsese, one of the greatest directors of today, has been on a 28-year journey to bring this story based on Shusaku Endo's 1966 novel about two Christian missionaries who face the ultimate test of faith when they travel to Japan in search of their missing mentor at a time when Christianity was outlawed and their presence forbidden.

    The two missionaries, played by Andrew Garfield, in his second excellent performance (Hacksaw Ridge) in less than six months, and Adam Driver who are searching through Japan for their mentor Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson). The performances by not only these three but from every actor throughout this film are outstanding and the direction by Scorsese make this almost three hour film seem like there is never a moment that could have been removed. The subject matter of the film does make for some very hard to watch scenes and feel for what these people had to have gone through in this time.

    As are most of Scorsese's films, this movie will definitely not work for everyone but is another display of his exceptional directing skill and was well worth his long journey to get this film made. This will not be considered his best film but will have to be considered his most impassioned performance as a director. The faith and devotion showed by the missionaries in this film are like a summation of his career spent exploring his faith through his work.

The film is easily an 8.5/10 in my opinion but again I will inform you that this film is not for everyone as there are scenes hard to watch and the run time alone is lofty.