Silence (Blu-ray) (2016) |
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Silence (Blu-ray) (2016) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Drama | Featurette-7 short EPK featurettes | |
| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2016 | ||
| Running Time | 161:07 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | Dual Layered | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Martin Scorsese |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Sony Pictures Home Entertain |
Starring |
Andrew Garfield Adam Driver Liam Neeson Yosuke Kubozuka Yoshi Oida Shinya Tsukamoto Issey Ogata |
| Case | Standard Blu-ray | ||
| RPI | ? | Music |
Kim Allen Kluge Kathryn Kluge |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 | |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.40:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 1080p | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 2.40:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles | English | Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
In the middle of the 17th century Christianity was outlawed in Japan, priests tortured and martyred and Christians persecuted and killed. When word reaches Portugal that the Jesuit Farther Ferreira (Liam Neeson) has renounced his faith, married and abandoned his flock, two young priests, Fathers Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garupe (Adam Driver), who had both been mentored by Ferreira, refuse to believe the report and set out to travel to Japan to discover the truth. In Macau they are led to a drunken Japanese man Kichijiro (Yosuke Kubozuka), a man who, we later discover, had renounced his Christian faith under duress.
Kichijiro agrees to guide the priests to Japan. When they arrive they are taken an isolated village that still practises Christianity in secret. The priests are welcomed by the villagers including headman Ichizo (Yoshi Oida) and Mokichi (Shinya Tsukamoto); the two priests perform Mass and hear confessions, all the time fearing that they, or their flock, will be exposed and killed. Unfortunately while there they are unable to find any information about Father Ferreira. But rumours of their presence come to the Japanese Inquisitor Inoue (Issey Ogata). He comes to the village with his soldiers and while the priests escape into the hills Ichizo and Mokichi refuse to spit on the cross to renounce their faith and are executed.
Rodrigues and Garupe part company. Rodrigues is betrayed by Kichijiro to Inoue; the Inquisitor is curious about Rodrigues’ character and over a period of time tests him in conversation about the nature of faith and religion. Rodrigues is not physically tortured, rather it is his belief in the presence of God that is tested as Japanese Christians are tortured and killed in front of him; if Rodrigues denounces Christianity the villagers can go free. Then, as a final challenge, Rodrigues is taken to meet Ferreira, the man he had come to Japan to find.
Silence is directed by Martin Scorsese who also co-authored the script with his usual writing partner Jay Cocks based on the novel by Shusaku Endo. The film is a passion project for the acclaimed filmmaker as he had been interested in this material for almost three decades. The result is a beautiful looking, finely crafted, deliberate, epic, and one should add even-handed, meditation on religion and the nature of faith. Inoue is not a monster and has perfectly rational reasons for the outlawing and persecution of the Christian faith in Buddhist Japan, while the decisions for Rodrigues and Garupe are heart wrenching; by their presence in Japan they have given the Christian villagers renewed hope but if they had not come those same villagers would not now being tortured and killed. Is it acceptable to renounce one’s faith to save your life? Or the lives of the villagers? Garupe believes passionately that the answer is no, but Rodrigues is not so sure. That is why his reunion with his mentor Ferreira so shakes his belief in the presence of Jesus, as he has been hearing only silence.
While asking questions about faith, visually Silence looks stunning, with exquisite widescreen images of mist shrouded mountains, hidden villages, caves and the seashore, all beautifully filmed by cinematographer Rodrigo Pieto, who was nominated for an Oscar but lost out to La La Land. Rodrigo Pieto had also been nominated for Oscars for Brokeback Mountain (2005) and The Irishman (2019) but I will say that the images in Silence are some of the most beautiful I have seen on the screen.
Silence is a deliberately paced, structured film that unfolds in long steady takes and the subject matter may not appeal to everyone. It is also quite brutal in places, justifying its MA rating. But Scorsese (with nine Oscar best director nominations, winning for The Departed (2006), which may believe is nowhere near the best film he has made) is a master filmmaker and Silence is a beautiful piece of filmmaking.
Silence is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, in 1080p using the MPEG-4 AVC code.
This is a gorgeous looking film with beautiful widescreen images of mist shrouded mountains, hidden villages, forested hills, caves and the waves and rocks of the shoreline (with Taiwan standing in for Japan). Daytime colours are rich and vibrant, the blue sea and sky, green leaves, the blackness inky with excellent shadow detail at night or in the caves, darkened huts and in the mist. Close-up detail on the ravaged faces of the priests and the villagers is strong, showing every dirt mark. Skin tones are natural, contrast and brightness consistent. Marks and artefacts were absent.
English subtitles are available. Subtitles also translate some sections of Japanese dialogue.
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Audio is English DTS-HD MA 5.1.
For a film entitled Silence there is not a lot of silence in the audio. Although the score is credited to Kim Allen Kluge and Kathryn Kluge and there are a fair bit of traditional music cited in the end credits, in reality music plays very little part in the audio track. From the opening blank screen, which appears for some seconds before the title Silence appears, we hear only the natural sounds of insects, birds, wind, thunder and the crash of waves and this is also the case during the long end credits. These natural sounds also dominate the audio during the film together with voices in crowds in the city and in a restaurant. In the sequence where Ichizo and Mokichi are tied to crosses and exposed to the sea, the crashing waves fill the sound stage. The subwoofer is also very effective in this scene, but is not overused elsewhere. The dialogue, a mixture and English, Japanese and Latin given the various accents is generally clear and here are no lip synchronisation issues
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There are seven short EPK type featurettes with film clips (often repeated in different featurettes), some on set footage and comments from director / co-producer / co-screenwriter Martin Scorsese, cast Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, cinematographer Rodrigo Pieto, co-screenwriter Jay Cocks and editor Thelma Schoonmaker. There is some comments about the plot, the cast and their characters, including how Fr Ferreira was based on a real Jesuit priest, the source novel, Scorsese’s vision and his interest in the subject matter for almost 3 decades. Each featurette must be selected separately from the menu. The sections are:
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The US Region A release of Silence adds more language and subtitle options and, instead of our short extras, it includes Martin Scorsese’s Journey Into Silence running 24:30 which probably makes that release a marginally better choice.
The deliberate pace and subject matter of Silence may not be for everyone. Yet, you don’t have to be a Christian or interested in religion to be captivated by a master filmmaker, the meditations around the nature of faith and the exquisite widescreen images of Silence.
The video is stunning, the audio very good. The extras are light weight.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Sony BDP-S580, using HDMI output |
| Display | LG 55inch HD LCD. This display device has not been calibrated. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p. |
| Audio Decoder | NAD T737. This audio decoder/receiver has not been calibrated. |
| Amplification | NAD T737 |
| Speakers | Studio Acoustics 5.1 |