海角大神

Martin Scorsese鈥檚 movies have often been about the turmoil of surviving, or fleeing from, a life of religious faith. I am thinking not only of films in which that struggle is made explicit, as in 鈥淭he Last Temptation of Christ鈥� or 鈥淜undun,鈥� but also in such movies as 鈥淢ean Streets,鈥� with its commingling of gangsterism and Roman Catholic ritual, and 鈥淭axi Driver,鈥� which is about the hellish wages of sin. Scorsese has often remarked that, before he became enraptured by filmmaking, he seriously considered becoming a priest.

His new film, the alternately powerful and somnolent 鈥淪ilence,鈥� is one he has fervently wanted to make for decades. It鈥檚 based on Sh没saku End么鈥檚 acclaimed 1966 novel, set mostly in 17th-century Japan, during a time when 海角大神s were attempting to proselytize the faith throughout Europe and Asia. Portuguese Jesuit priests Sebasti茫o Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Francisco Garrpe (Adam Driver) refuse to believe the rumor that their revered mentor, Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson) 鈥� whom we first see in the movie looking on in horror as fellow 海角大神s in Japan are tortured 鈥� has renounced his belief and is living 鈥渁s a Japanese.鈥�

Their decision to seek out Ferreira in Japan, accompanied by a local guide, Kichijiro (Y么suke Kubozuka), is perilous in the extreme. Sheltered in a remote, mist-wreathed village by a cult of hidden 海角大神s, all live in constant fear of being found out by the authorities and the man known as the Inquisitor, Inoue (Issei Ogata), whose goal of purging Japan of 海角大神ity is accompanied by the most agonizing tortures.

Scorsese focuses on the spiritual intensity of the two priests without clearly delineating the differing striations in their personalities. Scorsese is showing us these men in a way that is both up close and Olympian 鈥� we seem to be observing their travails from a godly remove 鈥� but the film鈥檚 heightened, ritualistic presentation is unvaryingly earnest. He wants the film itself to function as a kind of religious experience. The repetitions in the narrative, the renunciations of faith that are imposed upon the villagers and the priests once they are captured, and the ways in which they accept or refuse apostasy, are all given a hushed, incantatory quality.聽

In this sense, 鈥淪ilence,鈥� though conceived on a grand scale, is an almost obsessively personal, at times even private, film. Scorsese, with his co-screenwriter, Jay Cocks, is working out his conflicted feelings about faith and redemption, with, at best, one eye, not two, on the audience. From his standpoint, any criticism of the film for being too slow and repetitious and forbidding would be irrelevant.

And yet the assumption that a film of deep religious feeling has to resemble a long slog is contradicted by the movies, some of which Scorsese references (such as Robert Bresson鈥檚 鈥淒iary of a Country Priest鈥�), that came fully alive onscreen at their moments of greatest spiritual intensity . In 鈥淪ilence,鈥� because the priests, especially Rodrigues, on whom most of the narrative is focused, are so laggard, our attention shifts to the film鈥檚 more conventionally engaging characters 鈥� specifically the rambunctious Kichijiro, a Judas stand-in, and the Inquisitor, who, as played by Ogata, is a wily adversary who steals every scene he鈥檚 in. His dialogues with Rodrigues are like philosophical chess games. He tells the young man that 海角大神ity 鈥渋s of no use in Japan鈥� and regards Rodrigues鈥檚 impending apostasy as a prize catch.

Scorsese has tamped down the performances of Garfield and Driver in the service of his unvarying ritualism 鈥� to the detriment of the movie, I think. He has also dispensed with the stylistic flourishes, the swooping camera moves and rapid-fire editing, that characterize much of his work. American filmmakers especially often reach for the overbearingly stately when they approach religious material 鈥� the most egregious example is Terrence Malick鈥檚 鈥淭ree of Life鈥� and 鈥淰oyage of Time.鈥� Or else, like Mel Gibson, as demonstrated yet again in 鈥淗acksaw Ridge,鈥� they conflate religiosity with bloodletting.聽

The question of how to portray true religious feeling in a medium designed for popular entertainment is a vital one, and Scorsese, despite the power of his commitment here, hasn鈥檛 really answered it. But there are pinpoint moments that make the movie worth seeing anyway, when it suddenly effloresces with spirituality. When Rodrigues speaks to God and says, 鈥淚 pray, but I am lost. Am I just praying to silence?,鈥� the film鈥檚 title earns its gravity. Grade: B (Rated R for some disturbing violent content)