Silence (2016)

Wow. This harrowing story of two Jesuit priests fighting brutal religious persecution in 17th century Japan has magnificent photography, nominated, so far, by the American Society of Cinematographers. At 2:41 it's too long by 45 minutes but the pictures mitigated my fidgets somewhat. That said, it is also one of the National Board of Review's Top Ten Films of 2016 and won that board's Best Adapted Screenplay award. Here's my running list of awards--Oscar nominations will be released on Tuesday morning.

Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver (last blogged for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens) give their all (including about thirty pounds lost each) as the younger padres searching for their mentor, played by Liam Neeson (most recently in Third Person), who also emaciated himself (can I use that as a verb? I just did). Issei Ogata, Yôsuke Kubozuka, and Tadanobu Asano (all new to me, though the latter was in Thor and Thor: The Dark World) are all good as the mercurial Inquisitor, the informant Kichijiro, and the interpreter.

Jack and I have seen almost every Martin Scorsese-directed movie (most recently The Wolf of Wall Street) and decided we should not miss this one, despite its violence. Scorsese co-wrote the script with Jay Cocks (Oscar-nominated with Scorsese for The Age of Innocence (1993) and with others for Gangs of New York (2002); also wrote Strange Days (1995) and De-Lovely (2004)), adapted from the 1966 novel by Shûsaku Endô. In fact, they started work on it in the 1990s, and by pushing it to be made later and later, caused many legal problems which resulted in poor advance work.

Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (last shot Passengers) really loves fog, overhead shots, and slats, but none of it seems hackneyed. It truly is one of the most beautiful movies ever, other than the little matter of frequent and imaginative torture.

Scorsese clearly likes matters of religion (The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) caused a big stir) and many of what I considered extraneous minutes were devoted to the Catholics' agonies of faith despite silence from their higher power. I'm far from a religious expert but I understand the golden rule, and it's just as wrong that these Japanese Buddhists might have tortured Christians as it is that Spanish Christians may have tortured others two centuries earlier.

The music is quite wonderful and though the end credits promise a soundtrack album, its planned release is over a month away. The only track I can find online tonight is this one. Kathryn Kluge and Kim Allen Kluge (wife and husband) are credited as composers and a version of this long list of songs is in the credits.

Speaking of credits, imdb lists 29 producers, which earns the tag of producers plethora (I made a list), but I counted more than that today as the names scrolled down.

83% from critics and 71% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes will not be what convinces you to go or skip it. Instead it will be your tolerance for brutality and your desire to see the cinematography nominees.