Martin
Scorsese's Silence
Kathleen Spaltro.
(c) Copyright (2018) by
All Rights Reserved.
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?"
