Anyone watch the movie Silence?

[LaMachina]

Anyone seen the Scorcese movie Silence? I wouldn't call it an entertaining movie or even "good" necessarily but it is well acted and beautifully shot and I found it does have some pretty fascinating moments. I'm curious if anyone's seen it and if it caused any reflection on your life and mormonism or religion in general? I just watched it yesterday and I'm still trying to process it.

[Ghost]

This is one I've been wanting to see. I would have seen it in the theater had it played in my city.

I don't often find a film that does anything interesting with a theme of faith or religion, and Silence seems promising in that regard.

[LaMachina]

Yes I think it delivered in that regard. It has themes I think many Nom's could relate to. I say I'm not sure it's "good" (which is all subjective with this sort of thing anyway) as I found it too long and some moments didn't work for me. But it was definitely worth watching and I'm still thinking about it 24 hours later. That's when I know a movie has something going for it.

If you get a chance to see it let me know what you think!

[LaMachina]

I've been pondering this film now for a week or so but also don't want to get into spoilers as it seems no one has seen it. If you've seen the trailer you'll have a very good idea what the themes are and I feel like getting some thoughts out on these themes so I'm just going to type out loud. If you don't want any info on even the themes of the movie, don't read on!

I found it fascinating to watch this film in my now un-believing state. I'm sure it's similar to those of us who at some point come to the conclusion that Korihor is making a lot of sense! So without getting into specifics I wonder:

Is anything about religion pragmatic in any way whatsoever? When you get right down to the heart of it? You'll hear the religious talk like it is (heck I used to talk like it all the time), that following their faith brings real joy in this life. It brings health and peace and happiness. Paradoxically the religious also seem to thrive off opposition to the point that these days it almost needs to be conjured up (at least in N. America where we hear about the war on xmas and "teach the controversy" and things of that nature).

Watching this film I found the faithful so immensely frustrating sometimes because they were so incredibly impractical. And yet, there is a character who does approach a dilemma with some pragmatism and even I felt some disgust for him...like it's something deeply ingrained in me that roots for someone to do something "noble" even if it's kinda stupid at the heart of it.

Reading some christian reviews of the film it was interesting how strongly they disliked characters who acted out of pragmatism vs dogmatism. Some even call the film dangerous because of those characters.

I see it in mormonism as well as other faiths. We celebrate the Willie and Martin handcart pioneers even though what they did wasn't very smart. They paid a massive price for their decision but they were so "faithful" and they've become an inspirational symbol of mormon faithfulness. Why do we celebrate that?

Do you think anything about religion is pragmatic? And why do you think those that make the pragmatic choice, particularly when it comes to religion, so often get vilified for it? Is it possible the pragmatic choice is in fact the godly choice? Or, as seems to be the case based on my reading of the Bible and the Koran, does god require faith that surpasses reason and pragmatism?

And after thinking on it I absolutely recommend this one. It's positives outweigh the negatives.

[Ghost]

I finally watched this tonight. I liked it a lot, but I think it's too new in my mind for me to attempt much of an analysis.

At first, the thought crossed my mind that some characters exhibited NOM-like traits. But then I realized that wasn't right, it was more the inverse. Rather than continuing to practice their religion for largely pragmatic reasons despite waning belief, some characters in this film seemed to maintain their belief but outwardly act otherwise out of pragmatism.

Some of my favorite scenes were the discussions with the authorities. I liked that while they insisted on a symbolic denial of faith, they emphasized that it was only a formality and people were free to actually go on believing. How important is it to stand as a witness of God? Is there a point at which denying one's faith becomes the moral thing to do? If so, how do you determine that point? I can remember thinking about things like this as a missionary.

I don't know that this film has a particular message, rather than simply setting up a situation for the audience to think about and possibly interpret different ways. And I guess I like that about it. Some scenes might not have been quite as powerful in the end as they were intended to be, but overall I was pretty impressed with this film and I'm glad I saw it.

[LaMachina]

some characters exhibited NOM-like traits. But then I realized that wasn't right, it was more the inverse.

Great observation! I noticed it but didn't really put in that frame of thinking. It's an interesting parallel.

Is there a point at which denying one's faith becomes the moral thing to do? If so, how do you determine that point?

This was the theme that left the greatest impression on me. I left mormonism, not necessarily because of history, but because I felt it was morally damaging here and now. Yet when I was still struggling to hold to faith this idea of powering through despite the damage was always in the back of my mind. I see it all the time now in all sorts of faiths and faithful people I know. The idea of - This may hurt but God requires of us hard things. For me, at that time, I felt I was failing some spiritual test. This film spoke to some of that pretty effectively.

[Ghost]

I recently discovered another movie that explores questions of faith in a compelling way.

Stations of the Cross is a German film that tells the story of a young girl in a fundamentalist Catholic family. She is obsessed with sin and sacrifice, based on teachings from her mother and the priest of their congregation.

The film explores tensions between tradition and society in a way that reminds me a little of Chaim Potok's novels.

https://letterboxd.com/film/stations-of-the-cross/

[Ghost]

I hope it's okay if I continue to treat this as a general thread about movies that deal with issues of faith.

I recently watched Apostasy, which is about a family of Jehovah's Witnesses who have to deal with the consequences of their doctrines. Not an especially happy story, but an interesting window into the culture (from a critical perspective).

https://letterboxd.com/film/apostasy-2017/



Looks like this is now included with Amazon Prime, for those who subscribe to that.

[moksha]

Want to see this movie. I liked another religiously themed Scorcese movie The Last Temptation of Christ, even though many religious people were going nuts over it in order to show the indignation they were told they should have.

Evaluating any movie based on LDS teachings is like giving a review of a French wine based on red Kool-Aid. How could any wine hope to live up to the bright artificial food colorings and sugary sweetness of the Kool-Aid?

https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2018/09 ... -part-new/

[Hagoth]

Want to see this movie. I liked another religiously themed Scorcese movie The Last Temptation of Christ, even though many religious people were going nuts over it in order to show the indignation they were told they should have.

Evaluating any movie based on LDS teachings is like giving a review of a French wine based on red Kool-Aid. How could any wine hope to live up to the bright artificial food colorings and sugary sweetness of the Kool-Aid?

https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2018/09 ... -part-new/

When I saw The Last Temptation of Christ at the Broadway theater in SLC I had to go through a police barricade that was holding Christian protesters at bay. There were people stomping on an effigy of Scorsese. Interesting to see that they're doing basically the same thing with GC now to protect conference goers from their own less enthusiastic brothers and sisters.