Not sufficient enough to make anyone a Christian
Silence - a christian movie?
Jacob Jenkins
Daniel Bell
I read the book: much better, only for one scene…no, two.
First, the apostasy scene: Ferreira is not supposed to be there, and his line seems to imply that, as long as one keeps God in his/her heart, it's fine to hide your faith. Horrible and wrong on so many levels, but it seems to be the moral of the movie as for…
Second, the burial: when Rodrigues died, he got a Buddhist cremation to remove him from Japanese history; however, in the movie, his "wife" puts a small cross in his hands, symbolizing he never truly gave up on God, but this is again a not good message, for it's pretty much says: just keep God hidden inside of you, don't bother, don't create waves (something that Shusaku Endo always opposed) and just be a closet Christian.
The book is a difficult book, telling you how most of us are weak and despicable, and as soon as difficult times will come, most of us will betray their faith, but God, even if looking silent, will always be with us. The movie, well, like I said, missed on many marks.
Jose James
Scorsese is a person who relieves his great regret at not becoming a priest by making Christian movies that always are pro-doubt. It's basically masturbation for him. His movies never inspire greater faith and at most are for normalfags who walks out of the cinemas going "wow faith is such a grey area so deep".
The point of Silence is that even though God may seem silent/indifferent at our suffering, he in fact suffers with us. And it is a good movie for illustrating a small fraction of what Christians have had to put up with during these last centuries.
Luis Rivera
Fr James Martin (who should not have a twitter account but writes very interesting books) served as a consultant during production. He shared a few insights on the film:
americamagazine.org
americamagazine.org
I think an important distinction to remember is that the characters approach the faith through Ignatian spirituality, understanding that tradition may clear things up.
Nathaniel Parker
LMAO the eternal jesuit
Carson Gutierrez
scorsese is a jew, who, no surprise, hates christ. just look at his other works. the book itself is worth reading yes, but this jewish garbage is not worth watching. there are many christian kino out there, this is not one of them.
Nathaniel Reed
Eh, Sicilian…not a Jew, but close enough.
Aaron Lewis
As I have said, I have never watched the movie, but I think most anons here are missing the essential point. I find this movie to be similar to Bunuel's Nazarin. Nazarin even depicted a much more devout and strong character who got caught in a bleaker situation. However I don't think either of them tried to renounce the Catholic faith through their films, not at all. Both Bunuel and Scorsese are lapsed Catholics who felt the need to express their loss of faith, but on the positive side they also expressed their longing for their old love for God that has been lost. These films work as a transmission of their feelings rather than a propaganda for or against the christian faith, which is the purpose of art in the first place, a medium for transmission of emotions and not a learning tool.
Unlike the missionaries in Silence, the character Nazarin was a perfectly intelligent, reasonable, and articulate man. On top of that he was a very charitable man, the movie depicted him like a living saint. He endured all the tortures and rejections lashed upon him by the hypocrites during his journey, and from his brilliant teachings and determination he made three loyal followers. But a series of circumstances made him lose all his followers and meet many worse people with absolutely no sympathy in his beliefs. His seemingly fruitless attempts and endurance made him lose his faith in mankind and in God for creating such a cursed world. By the end of the film, the nihilistic and desperate Nazarin met the first charitable person he found in his whole journey. The charitable woman gave him a pineapple and told him "God bless you", an rejuvenating experience that made him reconsider his stance.
I think Silence depicted characters that are similar to Nazarin, although not as perfect as him, and a bleak world where all their actions seem to be fruitless. Though they seem to be weak and feeble minded, unlike the reasonable Nazarin, they endured it all to the end. There are messages they tried to tell. Bunuel told us that there might still be hope in mankind if you're courageous enough to keep looking for it. I don't know much about Silence, but I guess Scorsese too admired the endurance of the believers, an endurance that is too hard for him to emulate. Although made by practically an atheist, I think Nazarin is a great film for those who lost their belief in God due to the feeling that they are the victims of their own lives, and also for the believers who struggle to keep their sanity in their test of faith. It acknowledges their pain and would help them rejuvenate their faith.
For those who compare this to Passion of the Christ, it's not very feasible to compare them both. Passion is like a religious icon in cinematic format. For the believers it will strengthen their faith, but for the unbelievers, the message will fly over their heads. Passion depicts the antagonists in a one dimensional way, it depicts the Devil in a literal way, it depicts the miracles and resurrection of Jesus. Such subject is too fantastic for the unbelievers who reject such belief in the first place, you can't expect them to digest such subject just like that. Nazarin and Silence however are much more down to earth, they recognize human condition and psychology that made them lose their faith but at the same time they challenge their notion that the world is really spiritually hopeless. In fact, in spite of their loss of faith, Bunuel and Scorsese told us not to lose ours. No matter what the directors beliefs are, this is a pro christian faith message undoubtedly, and the the directors' loss of faith actually gives them the ability to touch the hearts of other unbelievers. Even the unbelievers have the ability to do good.
Such down to earth approach is also found in religious artists such as Tarkovsky who basically aimed to do the same thing, to touch everyone's heart whether they're a person of faith or not. Although the difference with Tarkovsky's films is they're much more hopeful. Being a religious director he was, Tarkovsky saw beauty in the growth of weak faith into a strong one. Tarkovsky did it better, but that doesn't mean that Bunuel and Scorsese didn't intend to do good. Tarkovsky was a really big fan of Bunuel's Nazarin anyway. I don't know how religious aspect is treated in Dostoyevski's and Tolstoy's books, they're very boring to read, so I'm not going to talk about them for now.
I'm baffled by the blatant hate and ignorance in this thread. Even going as far as saying that the movie has anti christian agenda and Scorsese is a Christ hating Jew. Why are you seeing everyone from the worst angle possible and accusing them of everything? I don't think that's a very christian attitude.
Blake Ross
"Rodrigues tramples and then follows in the footsteps of his mentor, becoming a Buddhist, marrying, and serving as an informant for the Japanese government. However, the film hints that Rodrigues secretly maintained his faith during his apostate years, and at the end, shows him holding a cross as his dead body is ceremonially burned.
Certainly the notion that Christ would condone apostasy to end someone else's suffering is deeply problematic.
Jesus left very clear instructions about renouncing Him, saying: "(W)hoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven." (Matt. 10:33)"
Jayden Howard
top lol, reddit is probably more your speed my friend