Silence

[Amppax]

Has anyone else seen the trailer for this? It looks like it may be really, really good. 

However, I've seen various reviews from Catholics, some good, some not so good. 

First, good: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/sdg-reviews-silence

Then, bad: https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2016/12/26/christus-apostata-scorseses-silence/ and http://www.crisismagazine.com/2016/martyrs-know-apostasy-can-not-justified. Note, I think there are spoilers in both of these reviews. 

Has anyone read the novel? I'm really excited for this movie, though the negative reviews have dampened that somewhat. 

 

Also, Fr. James Martin was a "spiritual advisor" for the movie. I'm not his biggest fan, though he's written some decent things. Apparently, he preached the full Spiritual Exercises to Andrew Garfield in preparation for the movie. https://cruxnow.com/interviews/2016/12/07/father-james-martin-on-movie-silence/

[Amppax]

An in the middle review, from Bishop Barron: http://www.wordonfire.org/resources/article/scorseses-silence-and-the-seaside-martyrs/5360/

Edited December 27, 2016 by Amppax

[Basilisa Marie]

I'm really excited for the movie. Vox had a good review of it, and I think Barron hit at an important issue that both sides of the martyrdom arguments (for lack of a better term) ignore. On one hand our lived experience of faith is much less cut and dry than many well-meaning teachers would have us believe; martyrdom gets romanticized a lot in some circles. Apostasy is never okay, but it seems like the story also raises the question of what really counts as apostasy? Supposedly there are some characters in the film that commit an act of apostasy then repent in Confession, over and over, while there are others who are martyred for the faith. This quote from the Vox article struck me: 

Quote

In Endō’s novel, and for much of Scorsese’s film, Rodrigues tells his own story in the form of letters, and mimicking that device, the film subtly gives us the story from his point of view. “Christ did not die for the good and beautiful. It is easy enough to die for the good and beautiful,” Rodrigues muses after the baptism of a peasant child, whom he characterizes in terms that seem harsh. “The hard thing is to die for the miserable and corrupt — this is the realization that came home to me acutely at that time.”

It's an interesting one to chew on. I don't know how much I agree, if at all. It seems like the Vox reviewer took the message that while we're called to imitate Christ, only Christ can really save and only Christ can really be, well, Christ. Regular old humans fall short. 

Yet at the same time I think that sells Christianity short, or it speaks to the seemingly untouchable witness of the martyrs and the real hidden Christians in Japan. I think it's easy from our American standpoint to sit around and talk about martyrdom's glory, and talk about the futility of actually living our faith in radically heroic ways. The temptation I see is for traditionalists to romanticize suffering and for progressives to totally dismiss heroism in the face of it. Speaking to the progressives, I think Barron's review is great. I gets at the truth that yes, we ARE called to live heroic lives and people have done it and continue to do it even at this very moment. Christ dies for them just as much as he dies for the apostate. Most of the reviews keep saying that the film offers a challenge to believers and to non-believers. I'm going to try to see it for myself soon. 

[Amppax]

Bought the novel and am reading it now. The style (letters from the protagonist to an unnamed recipient) is one I quite like. Already there have been some really interesting passages which have made me sit back and think. For example: 

Quote

We priests are in some ways a sad group of men. Born into the world to render service to mankind, there is no one more wretchedly alone than the priest who does not measure up to his task. 

 

The quote makes sense in its context and isn't as nihilistic as it sounds, but at the same time, there is a real sadness to this so far, which is juxtaposed with Rodrigues the protagonist's optimism and zeal regarding his mission. 

[Basilisa Marie]

Have you ever read The Sparrow? It's totally horrific but it has serious themes of a priest who doesn't measure up, and incidentally also involves Jesuits and a failed mission. 

[Amppax]

32 minutes ago, Basilisa Marie said:

Have you ever read The Sparrow? It's totally horrific but it has serious themes of a priest who doesn't measure up, and incidentally also involves Jesuits and a failed mission. 

 

 

No, I'll have to look into that. Who is the author? 

Edited December 28, 2016 by Amppax

[Amppax]

So I just talked to one of the priests at my parish about Silence, both the film and original novel. He hasn't seen it yet but has read the novel in both English and Japanese (his doctorate, before becoming a priest, was in Japanese literature). He's actually writing an article about it now, which hopefully I'll be able to share here, once it's published. 

His opinion is that the English translation is a very poor translation of the original, but the original isn't necessarily well written. He's not a big fan of Endo. He thinks that Scorcese's movie may be better as a piece of artwork than the original, but hasn't seen it yet. 

[LittleWaySoul]

I'll come back to this once I finish the book and see the movie. As for now I'm trying my best to avoid spoilers. 

[Amppax]

On 12/28/2016 at 2:36 PM, Basilisa Marie said:

Have you ever read The Sparrow? It's totally horrific but it has serious themes of a priest who doesn't measure up, and incidentally also involves Jesuits and a failed mission. 

 

Just checked a copy out from the library. I'll read it after I finish Silence. So far, I'm really liking Silence , though I'm beginning to understand some of the criticism. 

[Basilisa Marie]

On 12/31/2016 at 1:45 PM, Amppax said:

Just checked a copy out from the library. I'll read it after I finish Silence. So far, I'm really liking Silence , though I'm beginning to understand some of the criticism. 

Indeed. The Sparrow has more to do with questions of suffering and missions dealing with cultural differences. I'm starting the sequel soon. 

 

On 12/28/2016 at 8:45 PM, Amppax said:

So I just talked to one of the priests at my parish about Silence, both the film and original novel. He hasn't seen it yet but has read the novel in both English and Japanese (his doctorate, before becoming a priest, was in Japanese literature). He's actually writing an article about it now, which hopefully I'll be able to share here, once it's published. 

His opinion is that the English translation is a very poor translation of the original, but the original isn't necessarily well written. He's not a big fan of Endo. He thinks that Scorcese's movie may be better as a piece of artwork than the original, but hasn't seen it yet. 

oooh I'd love to read that.  

[Amppax]

12 minutes ago, Basilisa Marie said:

Indeed. The Sparrow has more to do with questions of suffering and missions dealing with cultural differences. I'm starting the sequel soon. 

 

See, that's interesting because most of the positive reviews of Silence that I have seen say that those are the main themes Endo was wrestling with when writing Silence.  In particular, the juxtaposition of the European culture of Catholicism with native Japanese sensibilities. Then, of course, there is the violence of Silence. 

Of course, I haven't finished yet. I should probably stop reading all of this until I've finished the novel. 

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SCORSESE’S ‘SILENCE’ PUSHES APOSTASY

NEWS: US NEWS

by Rodney Pelletier  •  ChurchMilitant.com  •  January 11, 2017    85 Comments

Liberal pro-gay Jesuit Fr. James Martin served as film advisor

(Warning: spoilers)

DETROIT (ChurchMilitant.com) - Some Catholics may have been hopeful over Martin Scorsese's new film, Silence, about Jesuit missionaries in 17th-century Japan. Hope in the work of the director of The Last Temptation of Christ, however, is at best misplaced.

Released for wider distribution on January 13, Scorsese's film is getting mixed reviews. Last week, it was snubbed by the Golden Globes.

The movie was first screened on November 30 for nearly 400 Jesuits in Rome, who gave it a standing ovation. Father James Martin, editor-at-large of the Jesuit magazine America and organizer for the screening, as well as a prominent pro-homosexualist liberal, commented, "It's a magnificent film."

Martin was an advisor for the film and for the play The Last Days of Judas Iscariot as well as the 2008 film Doubt. A day later, Scorsese had a private meeting with Pope Francis, who said he had also read the book.

In 1988, Scorsese released his film adaptation of the blasphemous novel The Last Temptation of Christ, which shows Christ and Mary Magdalen having sexual relations. At the end of a scene, an angel appears to Him on the Cross, telling Christ He is not the Messiah. He is then shown marrying Mary Magdalene. After she dies, He marries Mary the sister of Lazarus and her sister Martha.

Saint Francis Xavier, one of the great Jesuit missionaries and close friend of the order's founder, St. Ignatius Loyola, began missionary efforts in Japan around 1549. Afterwards, Franciscan and Dominican missionaries arrived and began converting the Japanese.

By 1579, there were about 130,000 converts, with Japanese Catholics in nearly every social class, and there were hundreds of Catholic churches throughout the country. In 1614, the Tokugawa government banned Catholicism in an effort to expunge foreign influences. All foreign missionaries were ousted and Japanese Catholics directed to apostatize or face torture and execution.

It is in this historical setting that Silence begins. Based on a 1966 book by Japanese author Shusaku Endo, it tells the story of two young Jesuit priests who go to Japan to find their former superior, whom they heard had left the Catholic faith.

The priests become troubled at the horrific torture and gruesome deaths some Japanese martyrs faced rather than renounce their faith by trampling on an image of Jesus Christ or the Blessed Virgin Mary. One of the priests encourages them to apostatize in order to avoid torture, until he himself is faced with the choice to abandon the Catholic faith in the final scene.

A group of Japanese Catholics are tortured, and he is told it will end if he steps on the holy image as a denial of the Faith. It is at that point the priest hears the voice of Christ saying, "You may trample. You may trample. I more than anyone know of the pain in your foot. You may trample. It was to be trampled on by men that I was born into this world. It was to share men's pain that I carried My Cross."

Earlier, the Jesuit superior says to the young priest, "If Christ were here, He would apostatize for their sake," reasoning that [t]o give up your faith is the most painful act of love."

The struggling Jesuit gives in to the alleged voice of Christ, tramples on the image of Christ, thereby making a public renunciation of the Faith. It is on this note that the film ends.

 

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Rodney Pelletier is a staff writer for ChurchMilitant.com.

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