Silence (2016)

Cast & Crew

Martin Scorsese

Director

Andrew Garfield

Rodrigues

Adam Driver

Garupe

Liam Neeson

Ferreira

Tadanobu Asano

Interpreter

Ciarán Hinds

Father Valignano

Videos

Silence (2016)

Silence (2016): Video 1

Official DVD Trailer

20'' Spot

"Andrew Garfield" Featurette

"Adam Driver" Featurette

"Liam Neesen" Featurette

"Marty's Passion" Featurette

Photos

Silence (2016)

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Where To Watch

Silence (2016)

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Watch Silence (2016) on Apple TV+, Pluto TV, Amazon, Fandango, Google Play, and YouTube.

Content Rating Guide

Silence (2016)

Silence is a profound, if agonizing, exploration of the “theology of the cross” versus a “theology of glory.” It captures the visceral reality of the Great Commission in its most costly form, showing how the gospel takes root in the hearts of the marginalized and oppressed. The film’s central tension—Rodrigues’ struggle with God’s apparent absence during the martyrdom of the innocent—echoes the lamentations of the Psalms and the cry of Christ on the cross. It forces viewers to look past a triumphalist Christian life and consider the “theology of the swamp,” where faith is not a victory march but a hidden, bleeding endurance that relies entirely on sustaining grace.
The character of Kichijiro serves as a powerful, recurring motif of the human need for perpetual repentance. Like Peter or Judas, he fails repeatedly, yet he constantly returns to seek confession, illustrating the biblical truth that Christ came for the broken, not the self-sufficient. While the film’s climax involving Rodrigues’ outward apostasy is controversial, it invites deep theological reflection on the nature of sacrifice. It asks if a believer can truly “empty himself” for the sake of others, even to the point of losing his reputation for sanctity, in a radical, messy imitation of Christ’s own descent into our suffering.
For the Christian viewer, this film is a somber call to sanctification through suffering. It illustrates that mission is not merely the export of Western religious structures but the planting of a seed that may die in the ground before it bears fruit. The “silence” Rodrigues hears is ultimately interpreted not as God’s indifference, but as His presence within the very act of suffering itself, reminding us that our Savior is “acquainted with grief” and walks with the persecuted even when the heavens seem like brass.

The film presents a sophisticated challenge to the universality of the Gospel through the perspective of the Japanese authorities. The Inquisitor, Inoue, argues from a position of cultural relativism, suggesting that Japan is a “swamp” where the “sapling” of Christianity cannot take root because the soil—the Japanese worldview—is fundamentally different. This perspective posits that religious truth is not objective or universal but is instead a product of geography and tradition, a direct challenge to the biblical claim that Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life for all nations.
Additionally, the film portrays the Buddhist concept of “emptiness” and the rejection of a personal, transcendent Creator as the immovable wall against which the Jesuit mission crashes. The authorities view the Christian insistence on absolute truth as a threat to social harmony and national identity. By giving voice to these arguments, the film accurately depicts the intellectual and spiritual warfare involved when the Gospel enters a culture that values collective stability and ancestral tradition over individual salvation and objective revelation.
The Inquisitor, Inoue, argues from a position of cultural relativism, suggesting that Japan is a “swamp” where the “sapling” of Christianity cannot take root because the soil—the Japanese worldview—is fundamentally different.

Sexual and Romantic ContentNone

The violence in Silence is not gratuitous in the sense of entertainment, but it is unflinching and deeply disturbing, designed to make the viewer feel the weight of the martyrs’ sacrifice. Scenes depict believers being tied to wooden crosses in the ocean to be slowly drowned by the incoming tide, while others are wrapped in straw mats and burned alive or thrown into the sea. The most harrowing method of torture shown is “the pit,” where victims are hung upside down over a hole, slightly bled to keep them conscious, and left to suffer for days.
Scorsese focuses heavily on the psychological agony of the onlookers, particularly Father Rodrigues, as he is forced to listen to the moans of those in “the pit.” We see the aftermath of beheadings and the physical toll of starvation and exposure on the hidden Christians. The “crunch” of violence is felt more in the emotional and spiritual stakes than in stylized blood-splatter, but the visual depictions of suffering are intense and somber, serving as a visceral reminder of the historical cost of the faith.
Scenes depict believers being tied to wooden crosses in the ocean to be slowly drowned by the incoming tide, while others are wrapped in straw mats and burned alive or thrown into the sea.

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Audience Reviews

Commentable Scenes

Rating Distribution

Cast & Crew

Videos

Silence (2016): Video 1

Official DVD Trailer

20'' Spot

"Andrew Garfield" Featurette

"Adam Driver" Featurette

"Liam Neesen" Featurette

"Marty's Passion" Featurette

Photos

If you liked Silence (2016), you might also like...

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