I had waited a month for Scorsese’s’ movie “Silence” to come to the video store, and this weekend it finally arrived. The check-out guy warned us that it was 3 hours long, and I shrugged – a good movie, like a good book, can take as long as it wants. I was worried, though, that Scorsese might do to Jesuit missionaries of Japan in the 17th century what he had done to the Crucifixion, scandalizing many with his portrayal of Jesus as a fairly ordinary, and married, prophet of the Jews. However, my wife checked comments on the movie and people seemed to like it, barring its slowness and length. Length was no problem for me, for I knew that the photography would be delicious (as it was). Scorsese isn’t called a genius for nuthin’. Silence, well done, could only enhance that.
What I wasn’t prepared for was the deadness of the silence. The plot is this: in the early 1600’s, all the missionaries to Japan had been tortured and killed, along with their acolytes, with the exception of a certain Father Ferreira, who had apostatized – that is, had publicly forsaken his beliefs - to become a married member of Japanese society (I should note that this movie is based on actual accounts). Two young Jesuits who had been his students couldn’t believe this account of him, and successfully begged their superior to let them go to Japan to find the truth. On arrival, what they first found confirmed the hatred the Japanese authorities had for Christians, who were hounded, tortured and killed. They themselves had to quickly go into hiding. Eventually, several Christian villagers who had protected them were exposed and killed, causing the two fathers to separate.
After this, we follow only one Jesuit – Father ”J” (I forget his name). Here we see him move from one location to another while his peasant protectors are slaughtered; here we see him captured, turned in by a Japanese Judas; her we see him suffer as his fellow Jesuit is brought back to him, and then drowned along with several of his protectors before his eyes; here we see the full weight of a cruel and devious Japanese psychological attack as it attempts to bend him to renounce his faith. Finally, he is met by Fr Ferreira (Liam Neesen), who indeed has apostatized. He explains to Fr J that he renounced not only to protect his followers, but also because he found that the Japanese were unable to understand the Catholic faith. He tells Fr J that Christ to them is only the sun, not the Son, and will always be so. He explains that the Japanese can only understand God, or the gods, through nature. He escalates further, telling Father J that the faith they have been taught is not The Truth, but only one small truth among many.
Fr J is then put to a final test. He is forced to watch as several of his followers are hung upside down in deep pits of filth to die slowly. They scream and they retch, and finally, through his tears of agony and guilt, he hears Christ tell him: “I came to reduce your suffering. Deny me to save others.” He does so by stepping on an image of Christ. Afterwards, he lives for decades working for the Japanese to inspect and reject all imports from Europe that have a Christian theme. It was certainly meant as a galling insult to his faith. It is only at his death and cremation that we see he has a small crucifix cupped in his hands.
It is a complex film, where we scarcely know through the dialogue what the movie wants us to believe. Are the Japanese really incapable of understanding Christianity? If so, how did the pagans of Europe do so? Is one religion – the Shinto and Zen Buddhism of Japan, or Christianity, superior one to the other, or only dependent on cultural background? And, did the two Jesuits really diminish their own faith in renouncing, or did they do so only to protect others?
Unfortunately, with so much time, the movie could also have gotten into the politics of the era. In the 17th century, both Japan and Europe were still largely theocratic, with politics and religion intricately intertwined. Because of this, the Jesuits in Japan were correctly seen as an imperialistic advance by Europe. On the other hand, this was the Shogun era in Japan, where the dominant aristocracy and their soldiers had a firm boot on the necks of the peasants. Christianity, with its emphasis on individual equality, would have threatened their reign, and perhaps caused it to fall. There was a lot more going on in that time than questions of faith alone.
Yet the movie could have been fine without such background. The themes are potentially compelling. For instance, the title “Silence” refers to Christ’s lack of response to Fr J’s prayers, where instead, Fr J is left only with uncaring nature and cruel humanity in a foreign land. This captures everyman’s moments of fear and pain. But when Fr J finally does hear Christ, it is cartoonish in tone, giving us the feeling that the voice is make-believe and only in the Fr’s head. Just as God is for us all.
And that is where the movie takes us. Regardless of what is said or shown in the movie, if we listen to the silence in our gut, we “hear” that there is no God and that such beliefs are only a part of a wishful imagination. We “hear” that if God exists at all, he does not comfort us in our troubles, but rather leaves us to suffer the cold world of reality alone. It is a hard and dark message. It causes one – or at least me - to have a hard time believing in anything sacred.
I am not sure if the movie was made to put us in this place of doubt to experience what we all will experience during difficult times in our lives, or to simply cause doubt, but it did depress me immensely before it made me think: hey, wait a minute! Spirit is real! Nearly half of Americans have experienced it, as I have, and not just once. It is seldom a voice in the head, but rather a gut-level sense of certainty, of harmony and unity, that cannot be denied when felt. It usually occurs in silence, but not at any moment that we (or at least I) can decide upon; rather, it comes as grace wills it. Doubt arrives only after spirit leaves, when we are left to the “real” world once again. Spirit may not validate any religion, but it does validate a higher reality that engulfs the quotidian with benevolence and unity. It also acts on our lives, sometimes in dramatic ways, but seldom as we expect. It is the mystery, that which happens in real silence; a silence no less than that suffered by Fr J as he strained to hear God’s voice. But it seldom speaks in a clear voice, and seldom if ever in cartoonish strains.
Spirit is not fickle in nature, although nature reflects it in part, just as it is reflected by fickle human nature. But it will not yield to our pleas, whether we are priests or not. It has its own ways, and its ways are not those of any culture or fantasy. Fr J and Fr Ferreira had to confront the absence of manipulative certainty over spirit, but the movie never confides with us that Spirit exists. Perhaps this possibility is spoken of in the tiny crucifix that lay in the dead Fr’s hands before he was burnt to ashes, but hope in this movie is smaller than that cross, while doubt fills the whole screen.
It is a good movie for those who wish to plunge into the depths of uncertainty and alone-ness, and, on the eve of Easter, into the despair suffered by the dying Christ, but no answers are found here. If one is looking for an uplift of faith, go elsewhere. This movie, at least for me, is a plunge into a pit as foul as that which tortured the Japanese Christians, and from which we might be extricated only by the denial of God – only to enter another pit that is even worse. FK
What I wasn’t prepared for was the deadness of the silence. The plot is this: in the early 1600’s, all the missionaries to Japan had been tortured and killed, along with their acolytes, with the exception of a certain Father Ferreira, who had apostatized – that is, had publicly forsaken his beliefs - to become a married member of Japanese society (I should note that this movie is based on actual accounts). Two young Jesuits who had been his students couldn’t believe this account of him, and successfully begged their superior to let them go to Japan to find the truth. On arrival, what they first found confirmed the hatred the Japanese authorities had for Christians, who were hounded, tortured and killed. They themselves had to quickly go into hiding. Eventually, several Christian villagers who had protected them were exposed and killed, causing the two fathers to separate.
After this, we follow only one Jesuit – Father ”J” (I forget his name). Here we see him move from one location to another while his peasant protectors are slaughtered; here we see him captured, turned in by a Japanese Judas; her we see him suffer as his fellow Jesuit is brought back to him, and then drowned along with several of his protectors before his eyes; here we see the full weight of a cruel and devious Japanese psychological attack as it attempts to bend him to renounce his faith. Finally, he is met by Fr Ferreira (Liam Neesen), who indeed has apostatized. He explains to Fr J that he renounced not only to protect his followers, but also because he found that the Japanese were unable to understand the Catholic faith. He tells Fr J that Christ to them is only the sun, not the Son, and will always be so. He explains that the Japanese can only understand God, or the gods, through nature. He escalates further, telling Father J that the faith they have been taught is not The Truth, but only one small truth among many.
Fr J is then put to a final test. He is forced to watch as several of his followers are hung upside down in deep pits of filth to die slowly. They scream and they retch, and finally, through his tears of agony and guilt, he hears Christ tell him: “I came to reduce your suffering. Deny me to save others.” He does so by stepping on an image of Christ. Afterwards, he lives for decades working for the Japanese to inspect and reject all imports from Europe that have a Christian theme. It was certainly meant as a galling insult to his faith. It is only at his death and cremation that we see he has a small crucifix cupped in his hands.
It is a complex film, where we scarcely know through the dialogue what the movie wants us to believe. Are the Japanese really incapable of understanding Christianity? If so, how did the pagans of Europe do so? Is one religion – the Shinto and Zen Buddhism of Japan, or Christianity, superior one to the other, or only dependent on cultural background? And, did the two Jesuits really diminish their own faith in renouncing, or did they do so only to protect others?
Unfortunately, with so much time, the movie could also have gotten into the politics of the era. In the 17th century, both Japan and Europe were still largely theocratic, with politics and religion intricately intertwined. Because of this, the Jesuits in Japan were correctly seen as an imperialistic advance by Europe. On the other hand, this was the Shogun era in Japan, where the dominant aristocracy and their soldiers had a firm boot on the necks of the peasants. Christianity, with its emphasis on individual equality, would have threatened their reign, and perhaps caused it to fall. There was a lot more going on in that time than questions of faith alone.
Yet the movie could have been fine without such background. The themes are potentially compelling. For instance, the title “Silence” refers to Christ’s lack of response to Fr J’s prayers, where instead, Fr J is left only with uncaring nature and cruel humanity in a foreign land. This captures everyman’s moments of fear and pain. But when Fr J finally does hear Christ, it is cartoonish in tone, giving us the feeling that the voice is make-believe and only in the Fr’s head. Just as God is for us all.
And that is where the movie takes us. Regardless of what is said or shown in the movie, if we listen to the silence in our gut, we “hear” that there is no God and that such beliefs are only a part of a wishful imagination. We “hear” that if God exists at all, he does not comfort us in our troubles, but rather leaves us to suffer the cold world of reality alone. It is a hard and dark message. It causes one – or at least me - to have a hard time believing in anything sacred.
I am not sure if the movie was made to put us in this place of doubt to experience what we all will experience during difficult times in our lives, or to simply cause doubt, but it did depress me immensely before it made me think: hey, wait a minute! Spirit is real! Nearly half of Americans have experienced it, as I have, and not just once. It is seldom a voice in the head, but rather a gut-level sense of certainty, of harmony and unity, that cannot be denied when felt. It usually occurs in silence, but not at any moment that we (or at least I) can decide upon; rather, it comes as grace wills it. Doubt arrives only after spirit leaves, when we are left to the “real” world once again. Spirit may not validate any religion, but it does validate a higher reality that engulfs the quotidian with benevolence and unity. It also acts on our lives, sometimes in dramatic ways, but seldom as we expect. It is the mystery, that which happens in real silence; a silence no less than that suffered by Fr J as he strained to hear God’s voice. But it seldom speaks in a clear voice, and seldom if ever in cartoonish strains.
Spirit is not fickle in nature, although nature reflects it in part, just as it is reflected by fickle human nature. But it will not yield to our pleas, whether we are priests or not. It has its own ways, and its ways are not those of any culture or fantasy. Fr J and Fr Ferreira had to confront the absence of manipulative certainty over spirit, but the movie never confides with us that Spirit exists. Perhaps this possibility is spoken of in the tiny crucifix that lay in the dead Fr’s hands before he was burnt to ashes, but hope in this movie is smaller than that cross, while doubt fills the whole screen.
It is a good movie for those who wish to plunge into the depths of uncertainty and alone-ness, and, on the eve of Easter, into the despair suffered by the dying Christ, but no answers are found here. If one is looking for an uplift of faith, go elsewhere. This movie, at least for me, is a plunge into a pit as foul as that which tortured the Japanese Christians, and from which we might be extricated only by the denial of God – only to enter another pit that is even worse. FK
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