What led this great American artist to make a story of missionaries in Japan his ultimate passion project? He is known for his gangster pictures; he is a grandmaster of the profane. From the beginning, he has revealed himself to be an artist of intensely Catholic preoccupations, and the poisoned arrow of religious conflict runs straight through his career. â??Taxi Driverâ?: a Vietnam vet as a spiritual avenger, bent on cleansing the city of filth through violence. â??Cape Fearâ?: a tattooed fundamentalist determined to exact Godâ??s justice. â??Kundunâ?: a young man raised to be a spiritual master, thrust up against spirit-killing communism. Even â??Living in the Material World,â? Scorseseâ??s documentary about George Harrison, takes as its theme the conflict between flesh and spirit, between Beatle and seeker.
â??Silenceâ? is a novel for our time: It locates, in the missionary past, so many of the religious matters that vex us in the postsecular present â?? the claims to universal truths in diverse societies, the conflict between a profession of faith and the expression of it, and the seeming silence of God while believers are drawn into violence on his behalf. As material for Scorsese, then, â??Silenceâ? is apt, and yet Scorseseâ??s commitment to it has been extraordinary, even by his exacting standards. To understand that commitment, I spoke with the filmmaker, with members of the cast and the production team and with others who know the novel well â?? trying to grasp just what kind of an act of faith this film is.
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