Scorsese has tackled the issue of faith throughout many of his motion pictures. One of the world's all time master filmmakers, Scorsese's name attached to any subject matter that he is involved with as a cinematic storyteller is compulsory viewing for any student of any age and studying a variety of disciplines. Despite being known for his films that explored the underworld of organized crime, maybe six, including an upcoming feature that reunited him with frequent collaborator Robert DeNiro together with Al Pacino, who for the first time worked with Mr. Scorsese, Martin's body of work covers so many different genres with the exception of science fiction, and to associate his films with solely the organized crime genre might be both an undestimating of his abilities and yet strangely enough may also be a complement to his legacy as a motion picture Director if only because the films of Martin Scorsese transcend and relate to all who see them in mysterious ways. At one time Scorsese had seriously considered the priesthood within the Roman Catholic Church and his interest in faith can be seen through the his career even in a ecumenical sense. More straight forward, his interest in spiritual faith can be seen in his films The Last Temptation Of Christ, which was a passion project he wanted to make for many years and in his film Kundun. So it is not surprising that after decades he and frequent screenwriting collaborator Jay Cocks have been developing the screenplay based on the book of the same name that Silence tackles the issues of faith and the mysteries of being more Christ like through the a crucible and odyssey that takes two Jesuit missionaries journey into the heart of darkness as they search for their mentor in a hostile feudal Japan, the land of the rising sun. It is a film that I think will stick with viewers regardless of what they believe in for some time to come. Adam Driver and Andrew Garfield star as the missionaries and Liam Nelson as the man they are searching for, which begins this existential odyssey. A great ensemble of Japanese Actors, whose work Scorsese admired, is cited in the documentary feature (24:30), which also features interview clips with cast members as well as frequent collaborators behind-the-scenes. I found the documentary, which is the sole extra value feature on the Blu-ray Disc, to be surprisingly thorough.
The film is presented in a spot-on 1080p, full HD widescreen presentation with an atmospheric English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround Soundtrack. An English Descriptive Audio Track is included along with French and Spanish Language Dubbed Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtracks and English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired as well as English, French and Spanish Language Subtitles are encoded onto the disc as options. The interactive menu is appropriately simple and yet still elegant. A code for a limited time only redeemable choice of either a high definition Ultraviolet or iTunes digital copy is included within the blue BD case. Silence is available now on Blu-ray Disc at retailers on and offline courtesy of Paramount Home Entertainment.
(C) Copyright 2017 By Mark A. Rivera.
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