It is finally here. The trailer for Martin Scorsese’s Silence has dropped and boy o boy, the film that the auteur conceived 28 long years ago looks absolutely stunning. Based on Shûsaku Endô’s novel, the film is set in the 17th century and follows two Jesuit priests Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver as they travel to Japan to find their mentor Liam Neeson and spread the word of the lord. The film is due a US release on December 23; just in time to generate Oscar buzz.
Much as I am looking forward to Silence, the film will have to work doubly hard to beat the not dissimilar The Mission (1986), directed by Roland Joffe. Set in the 18th century in the dense jungles of Argentina and Paraguay, the film stars Jeremy Irons as a Spanish Jesuit priest whose mission is to proselytise the local Guarani community. Evil martial man Robert De Niro who repents his sinning ways and becomes a man of the cloth supervised by another priest, Liam Neeson, joins him in his task. The solitary outpost of the church is firm in its resolve to stand by the Guarani when local plantation owners and colonists attack.
Apart from its noble themes, The Mission is also a ravishing visual spectacle. Chris Menges won the cinematography Oscar for his magnificent images. Ennio Morricone’s haunting score won him a Golden Globe and a BAFTA. And the film won the Palm D’Or and Technical Grand Prize at Cannes.
Perhaps born out of conditioning after receiving the majority of my education at Jesuit institutions, I have long been fascinated by films featuring Jesuit priests. In Bruce Beresford’s Black Robe (1991), Lothaire Bluteau plays a missionary in 1634 Quebec whose sets off on a journey to a remote Huron settlement to inform Algonquin Indians about Christianity.
Any discussion on this subject cannot ignore Robert Bresson’s masterly Diary of a Country Priest (1951) that details the travails of a young priest, Claude Laydu, assigned to his first parish in the north of France. Given the Silence, it is somewhat telling that Martin Scorsese has acknowledged that one of his favourite film quotes is from Diary of a Country Priest – “God is not a torturer”.
A brace of memorable priests feature in William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973) – Max von Sydow as the exorcist and Jason Miller as priest who is conflicted about his belief in God. In Jerry London’s television film The Scarlet and the Black (1983) based on real life events, Gregory Peck plays a Roman Catholic priest who provides refuge to Jews and escaped prisoners of war in Rome during World War II, much to the chagrin of the Nazis.
And in more recent times, Xavier Beauvois’s Of Gods and Men (2010), follows a group of Trappist monks in Algeria who live in harmony with their Muslim brethren until extremist terrorists shatter the entente cordiale. Sadly, the film is not fiction. It is based on the 1996 kidnap and murder of Trappist monks from the Tibhirine monastery in Algeria.
