There has been some confusion as to whether Martin Scorsese’s Silence will be ready to screen in time for this year’s Oscars. It, like Wolf of Wall Street, might just make it under the wire. Scorsese’s film is based on the Shusaku Endo novel about two Jesuit priests who try to bring Christianity to 17th century Japan. The film has been on the back burner for Scorsese starting back in 2009. It was filmed this year with Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver and Liam Neeson. The script was adapted by Jay Cocks. Jeff Wells has been ruminating on whether the film would be released this year and seemed to get his confirmation of that from David Poland of Movie City News. There is no official confirmation yet, as far as I’ve heard, only speculation. But, if it comes to pass, that might mean a year with Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg potentially IN THE HOUSE as they were in 2011 with Hugo and War Horse. Yeah, so like not a big deal or anything. Just two of the greatest directors OF ALL TIME.
Cinematography: Rodrigo Prieto
Editing: Thelma Schoonmaker
Production Design: Dante Ferretti
Music: Howard Shore
In other words, an Oscar joint up one side and down the other. From 2002 to 2013 every Scorsese film he’s made has been nominated for Best Picture except Shutter Island (which should have been).
Here is the plot summary from Wikipedia, with many details that will certainly constitute spoilers for anyone not already familiar with a book published nearly 50 years ago:
Young Portuguese Jesuit, Sebastião Rodrigues (based on the historical figure Giuseppe Chiara) is sent to Japan to succor the local Church and investigate reports that his mentor, a Jesuit priest in Japan named Ferreira, based on Cristóvão Ferreira, has committed apostasy. Half of the book is the written journal of Rodrigues, while the other half of the book is written either in the third person, or in the letters of others associated with the narrative. The novel relates the trials of Christians and the increasing hardship suffered by Rodrigues.
Fr. Rodrigues and his companion Fr. Francisco Garrpe arrive in Japan in 1639. There they find the local Christian population driven underground. To ferret out hidden Christians, Security officials force suspected Christians to trample on a fumie, a crudely carved image of Christ. Those who refuse are imprisoned and killed by anazuri (穴吊り), which is by being hung upside down over a pit and slowly bled.
Rodrigues and Garrpe are eventually captured and forced to watch as Japanese Christians lay down their lives for the faith. There is no glory in these martyrdoms, as Rodrigues had always imagined – only brutality and cruelty. Prior to the arrival of Rodrigues, the authorities had been attempting to force priests to renounce their faith by torturing them. Beginning with Fr. Ferreira, they torture other Christians as the priests look on, telling the priests that all they must do is renounce their faith in order to end the suffering of their flock.
Rodrigues’ journal depicts his struggles: he understands suffering for the sake of one’s own faith; but he struggles over whether it is self-centered and unmerciful to refuse to recant when doing so will end another’s suffering. At the climactic moment, Rodrigues hears the moans of those who have recanted but are to remain in the pit until he tramples the image of Christ. As Rodrigues looks upon a fumie, Christ breaks his silence:
“Trample! Trample! I more than anyone know of the pain in your foot. Trample! It was to be trampled on by men that I was born into this world. It was to share men’s pain that I carried my cross.”
Rodrigues obeys, and the Christians are released.
Very intrigued and excited about this (fuck yeah, it’s Scorsese).
I do, though, have little interest in what JW thinks – I don’t go anywhere near him or his website.
Al, Oliver Stone is the very reason I fell in love with movies. Sure I had a few impactful experiences as a kid but when I watched Platoon at age 15 or 16 I decided to follow my heart and dedicate my time to the cinema (the next two entries in the trio of films that made me a lover of cinema was Memento and Narc). But, I’ll say since maybe Alexander, Oliver Stone has not been the Oliver Stone that got me into movies. I have yet to see Savages but heard good things. Of course I’d like every movie in the world to be great but until I see a trailer for Snowden my reservations will be mighty. The Revenant, on the other hand, sounds fantastic. I like DiCaprio a lot but I’ve never felt that he’s been due an Oscar. I’m always aware I’m watching him but this could be the transformative performance I’ve been waiting for, or at least the one since What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. Plus having Hardy, Innaritu and Chivo is just fucking sweet nectar frosting on the cake.
Silence does sound great. Scorsese has never really let me down from what I’ve seen. I have not seen Age of Innocence or Kundun. Can anybody recommend?
I want Liam Neeson to be an Oscar winner so much, specially after this Charles Bronson phase.
One of my all time favorite movies is The Mission, which is of course also about Jesuits. I’m hoping Silence will be just as good as that one. I have high expectations and Scorcese always delivers.
I would love to see Silence release this year and contend for the Oscar. Martin Scorsese films always make the Oscar race more interesting. So far this year, in terms of Best Picture winners, we’re looking probably at either Snowden or The Revenant, or possibly Carol. I think Silence would make this race all the more fun. Now, we can only hope that the Coen brothers decide to join in on the fun and release Hail Caesar! this year as well.
I don’t mind if they hold up the film to February or whenever. Just give the man enough time to work on it. I felt like The Wolf of Wall Street was done in such a rush. I had some problems with the Editing part, which is itself an absurd. C’mon it’s Thelma F’ing Schoonmaker, you know
As a fanboy of the Jesuits, I’m pretty excited for this.
Temptation of Youth made me choke up so hard I near suffocated. Great piece of work. Alicia Vikander’s accent is impeccable as ever, her performance as impressive. Kit Harington finally cracked a fucking smile and Taron Egerton broke my heart in half. One of the most emotional experiences I’ve had in a cinema fml…
Scorsese’s made a remake of an already-good film before and HAILO OSCAR! This is probably a canny bit of stalling, like remember when The Wolf of Wall Street was ‘officially’ pushed to 2014 and then it wasn’t and it got five Oscar nominations and made loads of $? Smells like publicity for a film which few were buzzing about. Still, there’s been oddly little studio-generated noise around this film if it is to be released this year.
On the other hand, kinda nh for a film about Japan… white men in Japan. Lots of men. White ones. With a white man at the helm. Like yeh, maybe it’ll be brilliant, but meh to yet more Oscar buzz around this same type of film.
The writer’s name is Shusaku Endo, not Shusako Edo.
but even “The Last Temptation of Christ” only received a Director nomination (and deserved a lot more)
There was too much false outrage surrounding LTotC’s more controversial bits for it to gain real traction. I think the BD nom is a major testament to what could have been if the film wasn’t too risky a property. Silence, judging by the book, has much less going against it in that sense – it’s more of a deep and earnest expression of faith than a near-radical take that the other film had.
Excited for this, regardless. Book’s real neat and I trust Scorsese not to mangle it into the lame white savior-type of story that it could become so easily. Last Temptation is my personal favorite Scorsese, so I’d like to see him take on some hard religious themes again.
Not sure what the significance of Scorsese and Spielberg both having a movie out in the same year is, though. They’re contemporaries who work on similar schedules. This would be the tenth time if it happened.
Last night (i.e., Pasta Thursday) I reluctantly saw TESTAMENT OF YOUTH, and colour me surprised; it’s damn good! Check it out!
I dunno if Scorsese wants another Oscar or cares about it. If he does, and he can’t get the film finished exactly how he wants it by December 31, then the studio should do right by him and hold ‘Silence’ back until mid-2016. Do the full festival buildup, the release in October and a proper Oscar campaign to make it a big contender two ceremonies from now. It’s worth noting that the last time Scorsese had a full Oscar campaign behind one of his films, Departed won Best Picture
2013: Wolf Of Wall Street gets in just under the wire and gets a lot of big noms, but perhaps came too late in the game to really catch any momentum (though I suspect it wouldn’t have beaten 12YAS or Gravity anyway)
2011: Hugo is released pretty late, doesn’t get much of a campaign behind it due to box office failure and yet it’s still nominated for several major awards because the movie was that damn good. Kind of a tough movie to campaign behind since it’s not *really* a modern “kids movie” and also the gradual reveal that it’s a love letter to classic cinema is one of Hugo’s most brilliant surprises.
2010: Shutter Island is released in February and simply comes out too early to be remembered come Oscar voting time. Personally, I wouldn’t say it was one of the year’s 10 best anyway (kind of a muddled, predictable film in my books) so no big loss on the Oscar front. It’s also doubtful it gets any Academy momentum with other big movies like King’s Speech, Social Network, Toy Story 3 in the race, not to mention Black Swan getting the ‘really weird psychological drama’ buzz instead.
Prediction: whenever ‘Silence’ does end up getting released, Liam Neeson wins Best Supporting Actor. The guy is beloved in Hollywood and the Academy would jump to reward him for a meaty role that gets him out of his rut of generic action thrillers.
Do the full festival buildup, the release in October and a proper Oscar campaign to make it a big contender two ceremonies from now.
hey, are you the guy who made the very same series of decisions to patiently groom Foxcatcher for Oscar glory? 🙂
Anytime Scorsese gets spiritual (Last Temptation, Kundun), Oscar pretty much ignores him with minimum noms. Frankly, I love watching him recharge with these personal and thought-provoking films.
All for a successful, even strong, late campaign, but when was the last time Paramount mounted a competitive campaign?
Paramount owes Scorsese a nice competitive FYC campaign after deciding it would be better to not throw Shutter Island into the vicious holiday fray, hold it till February, and cash in those chips to the tune of $295,000,000.
If it can be finished in time and given a good release and marketing campaign a la “The Wolf of Wall Street” it could probably be a strong contender, in the technical categories, if nothing else.
But I have to wonder if such religiously charged material will fly with the Academy. Scorsese as director will help, but even “The Last Temptation of Christ” only received a Director nomination (and deserved a lot more)