Martin Scorsese's "Silence"

Martin Scorsese's Silence

 Kathleen Spaltro.

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Movies are often good, sometimes great, but rarely are films true masterpieces. Even more rarely is a film both a cinematic and a spiritual masterpiece. I wanted to watch Martin Scorsese's Silence (2016) again precisely because my first viewing had impressed me so much.

This truly amazing film comes from a director who once studied for the priesthood and whose sensibility has always remained deeply and authentically religious.

Silence masterfully renders human doubt, sadness, mercy, and devotion in an echo chamber in which unceasing human noise cannot conceal the silence of God while people suffer torment and persecution.

Einstein said something that illuminates this film: "God is subtle, but He is not cruel."

The film is subtle and leaves itself open to interpretation from many points of view. A Christian may feel as disturbed and moved by it as an atheist may feel. It imposes no doctrine, but it suggests a great deal.

The film asks, "Why is God silent?" But then it questions the assumptions underlying the question. It asks, "Is God silent?" It asks, "What is God?"