By Travis Johnson
Well, this trailer has been a long time coming. We’ve known that Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Shusaku Endo’s novel was due for release at some nebulous point, and now finally we have a trailer, a poster, and release dates a-plenty.
Set in the 17th century, Silence sees two Jesuit missionaries (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver) dispatched to Japan to find their mentor (Liam Neeson), who has apparently renounced God in the face of the Japanese regime’s brutal persecution of Christian converts. The third in Scorsese’s loose trilogy of faith, alongside The Last Temptation of Christ and Kundun, Silence looks to be an examination of religious belief in the face of earthly torture. Prediction: this is going to be a tough watch, as Christian martyrs are brutalised with all the inventiveness that Tokugawa-period Japan can bring to bear (which is a lot).
Silence is getting a limited release in the US this December to qualify for awards season. Australian audiences, however, are going to have to wait until February 16, 2017 – we’re sure it’ll be worth it.
