It's been 50 years since Martin Scorsese made his first feature film, "Who's That Knocking At My Door?"
The rest is film history. Although he's known for his investigations of mobster pathology,
he's explored a variety of genres, from female-driven dramedy "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" and black comedy "The King of Comedy",
to horror remake "Cape Fear" and historical fiction adaptation "Age of Innocence".
"Silence", the director's latest film, is a polarizing creation, loved by many, while dismissed by others as overlong and
unusually restrained for Scorsese, which leads us to ask: How "Scorsese" is
"Silence". An adaptation of Shusaku Endo's novel, "Silence" follows two Jesuit priests from 17th Century Portugal
(Rodriguez, played by Andrew Garfield, and Garube, played by Adam Driver) searching Japan for their vanished mentor Liam Neeson's Father Ferreira,
who apostatized or renounced his belief after undergoing severe torture.
"He is so unsure now. A man who has found peace. Let him guide you along his path... the path of mercy.
At first glance, "Silence" feels very different for Scorsese.
There's no slick, fast-moving camerawork, rapid editing, or Rolling Stones soundtrack.
But when you look in more detail, "Silence" does incorporate many of the techniques
we associate with Scorsese's best films. If the setting and specifics seemed to be a departure, the film still speaks to scorsese's
eeepest Career wide interests and themes and given that silence was a passion project 25 years in the making
The subject is clearly close to the directors heart
[for] [a] long period of time I was fascinated by
stories of the missionaries
[when] I was about eight or nine, Ten years old
And I wanted to become a [marital] missionary is that right? So how does silence fit in with the rest of scorsese's filmography?
Scorsese studied to become a priest in high school before switching course to pursue film at nyu
his Italian Catholic upbringing makes its mark on Several of his earliest film
Especially mean streets which sees harvey Keitel's character Charlie struggling to reconcile his catholicism with his life in the Mafia
[the] opening of the film sets us this dynamic with a god-like voiceover from scorsese himself
Addressing Keitel's character over a black screen you don't make up for your sins in the church
Could do it in the streets you do it at home
The rest is bullshit. You [know] it in raging bull
Catholicism entered the bedroom [as] the crosses and religious icons on the wall awkwardly clash with Jake and Vicki's attempts at Physical intimacy
The symbols reflect his deeply entrenched hang-up
Jake can't reconcile [chaste] adulation of his wife with a healthy sexual relationship
scorsese would deal with
Christianity more explicitly in the last temptation of christ in this retelling of the figures early life we see Jesus grapple with human
Temptation ranging from self-doubt to lust and the directors explorations of Faith aren't confined to Christianity in
1997's Kundun he dramatizes the coming-of-age of the 14th Dalai, Lama
all of these films look at faith in conflict with both external circumstances and inner demons
Score [see] whose characters aren't [saints] for human beings and often ones who are frustratingly unlikable or consumed in
self-Destructive behavior their limitations tend to most overwhelmingly from within
But I think there's a director. [who's] [is] able to portray characters?
who are inherently self-destructive doing something that will not benefit them and seemingly unable to stop doing, so
Silence gives us something a bit different with these characters instead of a self-destructive or self-absorbed character
We Witness Rodriguez sacrificing him son
[Ferreira] explains that the inquisitors will only spare five Japanese prisoners from Further torture if Rodriguez apostatize Errs
Rodriguez is conflicted does renouncing his identity as the priest mean renouncing his face
But he can't justify prolonging the suffering of others
He realizes that public renunciation is the only way to be inwardly faithful to the compass of his priesthood
So this conflict of religious piety becomes the contract between external and internal
Identities a divide scorsese has dramatized time and again throughout his filmography
Characters grappled with how to be moral in a world that's not whether it's the mob finance or Las Vegas
The difference in Silence is that our main character actually does manage [redemption] [even] [if] the path to it is [counter-intuitive]?
[on] first [viewing] the cinematography courtesy of [Rodrigo] [Creato] may feel the most distant from Classic scorsese
There's nothing like the breathtaking
Copacabana tracking shot or cool pushes into close-Ups that we get into [film] shot by Michael Bauhaus
Silence is primarily composed of subtle long takes and Tableau shots that work with visibility and
Concealing what we hope to see its first shot is a long. Take of deep mist
Obscuring our vision as we wait for figures to emerge furthering this motif of what can't be seen or known
scorsese incorporates torches illuminating small spaces within expanses of extreme darkness as
Characters plunge Forward into the impenetrable
unseeable unknown to wrestle with religious belief and doubt
The stark minimalist camera also captures violence in a different style than is usual for scorsese
[think] back to the bar fight in [main] Street which made use of quick cuts and a pop song by the renowned
And makes a violence [seems] jazzy and exciting there is an adrenaline rush to this and other scenes of violence and scorsese
In the end the violence never offers a solution. [it's] an empty way for his characters to assert their masculinity
He's a more exciting life or express their demons and it generally leads to self-destruction
But in silence the violence is never enticing or exciting at all
It's procedural and excruciating the inquisitors torture practicing Christians as part of their program of religious persecution
in
this scene they tie three prisoners two crosses out at sea and allow them [to] die over the course of a few days as the
Tide rolls in and out
Witnessing violence becomes torture in and of itself later Rodriguez is forced to watch an emaciated guru paid drowned from a distance
Long takes and matter of fact wide shots forced us to endure the violence with Rodriguez as a form of torture
We're no longer getting that ambivalent cinematic pleasure that we might have experienced in his earlier movies
It's a striking departure for a director. Who's known [for] how he shoots silence
Yes
It's also an in-Your-face
expression of the conclusion scorsese has always come to and violence doesn't pay it doesn't redeem and isn't the answer and
Violence is something that in the American tradition is very often seen as redemptive and for scorsese
It's never redemptive redemption comes from somewhere [else]. We may think it's in violence, but it's not
Even as much of silence looks different a few sequences visually evoke some of his most
recognizable cinematic techniques most striking is the slow motion when Rodriguez
Apostatize 'as the sound drops out and his movement takes on a physical grace and gravitas deepening the impact of the act
This may remind you of the opening credits of raging bull as Robert
De Niro's bars by himself
Slow-motion lends a certain beautiful stateliness to the introduction of his character in contrast to the behavior
We'll see in his life outside the ring in that film slo-mo also emphasizes heightened attention
focus and Paranoia throughout his filmography
scorsese uses slow-mo to underscore key narrative moments like when he
Emphasizes the importance of Robert de Niro's character in Mean Streets Johnny Boy the Rolling Stones?
Jumpin Jack Flash plays in Charlie's mind as he watches Johnny boy approach through the red lit health stage of the bar and the drawn-out
Moment establishes that these characters lives are irrevocably intertwined gristedes use of slow-mo might not seem
Revolutionary today as it's been so often copied that it feels standard or even overused but over the years the director has
Experimented with the technique for maximum narrative impact and in silence his sparing use of slow-mo for this single shot
Underscores it as the most crucial moment underpinning the story elsewhere in Silence
We see a few overhead shot which scorsese often uses to represent the eyes of God
Alfred Hitchcock an important influence for scorsese was also well known for using crane shot
Looming above the characters these moments aren't about morally judging the characters
But simply suggesting that some power above is watching
Scorsese uses them after significant decisions or actions are taken like at the end of taxi driver when the camera drifts above
surveying the Extreme violence in
Silence for help these shots give the spiritual presence of God a voice or at least Watchful eyes
So even if God may be silent perhaps scorsese creates a spiritual perspective through cinema
Itself to Imply [that] we're never truly alone
Silence gives us three strands of narration to our letters one from Ferrara and one from Rodriguez
Detailing their experiences in [Japan] to the priests in Portugal the third is Rodriguez's intern model our
father in Heaven praised be thy name
I'm just a foreigner who brought disaster
That's what they think with me now
Narration might be one of scorsese's most recognizable trademark
We touched on it earlier with mean streets
[Horsey] [season] sports over often paired with appealing music to entice the viewer into the world in Goodfellas
Henry Hills smooth seductive narration aligns us with his perspective
As Far back [as] I can remember I always wanted to be a gangster
We go along with him at first [enjoying] his youth spent idolizing gangster, right?
But as he descends into his increasingly erratic drug Fueled Paranoia
We start to reconsider accepting his skewed Viewpoint
Here and in other films like taxi driver the seductive yet suspicious [voiceover] creates this growing disconnect between an unreliable narrator
and us the viewer as the story inevitably goes south
Taxi Drivers Travis Bickle reads aloud his diary and voiceover feeding the audience a destroyer [skien] internal Monologue
Some nail real rain will come and wash all the scum off [the] street
From this privileged vantage point on the intimate psychology of Travis's downward spiral we watch with foreboding feeling
uncomfortably at odds with his disturbing point of view and perhaps a little
Complicit in what we see so we can conclude that a knowing play with perspective and morality
Is key to many of scorsese's narration?
But in silence par from Travis Bickel's warped diary we hear an earnest internal record
Rodriguez's struggle with [God] silence in the face [of] human suffering
Instead of manipulating the outside viewers perspective the narrations and silence follow
Spiritual Journeys inward all three narrations are delivered in the second person or few
Addressing either another character in the letters or God in Rodriguez's [prayers], but despite Rodriguez's pleading
God doesn't respond to him. This is the silence of the title Rodriguez is a man of Faith without [a] response
During his imprisonment his narration progresses from full uses of prayer [and] depleting Staccato Bursts
Apostatize his crisis of Faith punctuating the horrors on screen
Finally as [Rodriguez] looks down at the [Fumi] a we hear a new voice. It's alright
Step on me so here instead of using that narration to entertain us from a psychological distance as he's done before
Scorsese Fine-Tunes has technique to plant us deep inside Rodriguez's mind and include us in his intimate spiritual search
[why] because your silence is terrible last but not least those endings
Scorsese tends to conclude his films with his protagonists in Limbo Rather than triumph or total destruction
The character often humbled or having left his glory days behind
usually unable to achieve deep change redemption or self understanding
Goodfellas retired Mobster Henry Hill leads a quiet life in
Suburbia the wolf of Wall Street's Jordan Belfort does [assent] in a cushy jail before giving [motivational] seminars in New Zealand and
in Casino the Soundtrack of Jean-Luc Godard Contempt plays while ace Rothstein
reflect on his [lost] Golden age of vegas in Silence back feeling of limbo persists
Rodriguez is literally living out his final days in exile
Having been forced to leave the church and assimilate into Japanese culture
but scorsese offers a bit more closure for his characters interstate in this film when the camera pushes inside of
Rodriguez's casket, we see in the film's final shot that he's clutching a small wooden Crucifix although. He's been cast out into limbo
[he] isn't a stunted static soul
He's held on to his faith through it all so [to] return to our original question how scorsese is [silenced] in the end
We can see that his classic toolkit and fascinations are written all over it
But he updates these familiar techniques to dig deeper into recurring themes and the results mines new territory
Scorsese isn't content to make and remake the same film instead. He keeps his idiosyncrasies while continuing to evolve
only God [can] answer
Yeah