In the spirit of full disclosure, I must now acknowledge that Martin Scorsese’s version of Silence, as I saw it, WAS IN FACT essentially a story about “Wah boo hoo poor christians.” By the end of the film (some of which was a whole-cloth invention of Mr. Scorsese) I was beyond disappointed. Although the novel’s author, Shusaku Endo, is (was?) a devout Catholic, I found his novel to be imbued with a beautiful moral and theological ambiguity that was completely wiped out by Scorsese’s film.

It’s the nature of the beast. It is natural for humans to look up at the sky and wonder what does it all mean. There were religions before Christianity and some after. For what it’s worth, I’d rather the teachings of Jesus Christ be more popular than those of other prophets.

Harvey Weinstein doesn’t run Paramount. That’s Brad Grey.

Science cannot measure God and is niether inherently good or evil. Sometimes it takes truly hard times to understand what really keeps the world moving forward or what moving forward even means. The Word has been spreading through the world since the Roman Empire, yet is still accepted by only a few people. See what sustains a sickly person, a homeless person, a person abused by the world. It is not only modern medicine.

I don’t think god speaks to anyone to be honest even if such a thing exists. See, this is the main problem I have with Christianity and Christian logic and this is why people often compare Science and Christianity as polar opposites, logic versus faith. When scientists don’t understand something, they search extensively for it, gathering sources from history books, science books, performing experiments, evolving existing theories, forming new theories and generally use knowledge and smart problem solving to logically explain something in a way that the end result can be taken as a fact, an undisputable truth that has no room for vague interpretations. But when christians don’t understand something they say stuff such as “god works in mysterious ways” or “it’s a miracle” and generally try to forcefully find an explanation that fits with Christianity, that ends with vague results that have no basis other than blind faith. Faith is not what keeps the world going forward, logic and critical thinking does that, faith is what keeps as behind. This is getting way out of context to this article so I’ll just stop there.

Oh, really?

What *will* audiences stay seated for??? Another sucky-ass Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie??? Or yet another pointless, useless, unnecessary remake that NO ONE on this planet asked for (*cough*Ben-Hur*cough*)??? *I’ve* been waiting for Silence for over a year now-I’m staying seated for THAT, not for the endless stream of lazy, unoriginal bullshit that the major movie studios have been pumping out for almost a *decade*. Why does Hollywood believe the movie-going public is clamoring for remakes??? The overwhelming majority of them aren’t even hits (what was the last really good remake? The Karate Kid? That was *six years ago*!!!). Meanwhile, potential masterpieces like Silence are being tinkered with and swept under the rug.

If Paramount Pictures announces that Silence won’t be released until December of 2017, Brad Grey is dead.

(OK, not really, but something’s gotta give…)

I guess you want to see GoodFellas without the narration too, right?

God speaks to those with childlike faith. Search the world for truth without faith and you will find only darkness. Perhaps the bad news will eventually lead you to the Good News.

Christianity is relevant because the world opposes Jesus Christ, the son of God, who came to save you from it. Religion is part of the world but faith in Christ is not. Put down your pride and let your heart lead you.

Can’t disagree with you on your points.

However…. It would be nice to see Gangs without all the narration. It’s not like I watched it and thought.” That was too short. “

And isn’t that relevant? lol

I think it’s still interesting, but what’s interesting is discussing how Christianity has managed to survive all these years. It’s hard to deny that Christ existed, but it’s very easy to deny his divine nature or the miracles he supposedly performed as there is hardly any real evidence. Same goes for the Bible’s teachings, which many of its theories have clearly been disproven by modern science such as its theory of evolution. But what’s interesting is how Christianity works for people. It works because of the unknown that man still can’t explain such as what happens in the afterlife if such a thing exists. Many people cling on to the theory that they will go to heaven if they follow the Bible’s teachings in their lives and it’s virtually impossible to disprove of such a thing so people will believe it to deny the scary thought that there is no afterlife and you just dissappear forever, it helps fill the emptyness that these people would feel otherwise. At its core, Christianity abuses people’s ignorance to survive along with its teachings on how to be a good person, as if anyone needs Christianity to be a good person. It’s kind of sickening if you really think about it.

I disagree. Studios don’t care about the quality of the product. They use metrics and early screenings to see how much $$ they can snag. Movie making is just a business on that side of the industry

Literally Ironic is being ironic, literally… Well I’ve seen it all

The only relevance Christianity has today is in discussing just how f’d up organized religion makes the world. It has a tragic history of genocide and abusive social engineering.

Has he really, though? He’s wildly uneven. For every Goodfellas there’s a handful of overly indulgent garbage. Remember that the Godfather was subject to constant weekly meddling and was made under the shadow of the budget axe for almost the entire production. Meddling can be a good thing…especially when we’re talking about a three hour move about Jesuits.

Saying “Wah boo hoo poor christians” is like saying “Wah boo hoo poor italians” about the Godfather.

Just because you acknowledge that the vague machinations of Hollywood studios is something any ol’ person wouldn’t be able to immediately understand in a nutshell, doesn’t mean you should accept that they know what’s best for all viewers. Cinema is naturally way too subjective just by being an form of art to think that a studio’s marketing team or whatever knows more than viewers’ personal impression of Scorsese after having a decades-long relationship with his oeuvre.
And, as the other person who replied to your comment has already expressed… “Wah boo hoo poor christians?” Really? Your ignorance is showing, man.

It’s more relevant than ever. You are lost in the woods.

Religious movies are so 2004.

Somewhere, an evangelical just spit out his caffeine-free soda. Great job, fellow teen! You’re really sticking it to the man.

The story of Silence is not “Wah boo hoo poor christians” by any stretch of the imagination. It challenges its protagonists (and by extension, readers) to confront the silence of god in the face of intense human suffering. It also flips the popular romantic trope of “righteous martyr who is willing to endure great personal suffering” by asking how much a believer should be expected to allow *others* to suffer in the name of their faith. You ought to read the book instead of making ignorant statements about it.

You’re so edgy… the insight you’ve provided with this comment and the other one (saying the same thing) leads me to believe you have a high level intelligence.

‘Most’ is the key word. Are we really doubting Scorsese now because a studio says so? Lol.

/discussion