Silence vs Silence
Sunday, June 14, 2020 at 10:11AM 
At times Martin Scorsese's filmography looks like a string of projects that took decades before they saw the light of day. These monstrous productions include films like the bloody epic Gangs of New York and last year's mob drama The Irishman, and the 17th century set religious historical drama Silence (2016).
Silence is near the top of my own list of favourite Scorsese films. There are many reasons for that, not least of which is the fact the original novel, by Japanese author Shûsaku Endô, is one of my favorite books and it focuses on Portuguese characters. Consider also the empathy Scorsese shows towards every character, along with the willingness to pursuit complex ideas and murky morality when a straightforward approach would have been easier to follow. These qualities are especially evident in Silence (2016) because we can compare Scorsese's adaptation to that of another world-renowned director…