First Trailer for Martin Scorsese's SILENCE

After it being initially announced that the first trailer for auteur Martin Scorsese's long-gestating film Silence would premiere before showings of Allied on Tuesday night and online this Saturday things quickly snowballed into the trailer not playing before my screening of Allied to walking out of Allied only to find out the trailer had already debuted online. All of that said, the first trailer for Scorsese's passion project has finally debuted and it certainly promises a tale of vast epicness and deep explorations in the biggest, most complex of territories: religion. Based on the 1966 novel by Shusaku Endo and adapted for the screen by Jay Cocks (Gangs of New York) Silence follows two Jesuit priests who go looking for their mentor in 17th Century Japan, a time when outsiders, and especially Christians, were treated with disdain and mistrust. Scorsese is said to have been working on trying to adapt Endo's novel for some twenty-five plus years, but finally was able to move forward with the project at the beginning of last year after Fábrica de Cine and SharpSword Films agreed to produce and provide the financing for the $50 million picture with Paramount distributing the film in the U.S. While anything Scorsese does is naturally going to be of great interest to cinephiles the dierector has proved fairly bankable in his last few endeavors with Paramount releasing Shutter Island, Hugo, and The Wolf of Wall Street each to solid financial success and/or great rewards reception. Not counting Shutter Island, Scorsese's last five films have also scored Best Picture nominations and so the precedent is rather high for his latest, but if this trailer truly is any indication of the three hour opus the filmmaker has constructed we seem to be in for something special if not hugely insightful and maybe even influential. Silence stars Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, Tadanobu Asano, Ciaran Hinds, Shin'ya Tsukamoto, and opens in limited release on December 23rd, 2016. 



Synopsis: Martin Scorsese’s SILENCE tells the story of two Christian missionaries (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver) who face the ultimate test of faith when they travel to Japan in search of their missing mentor (Liam Neeson) – at a time when Christianity was outlawed and their presence forbidden. The celebrated director’s 28-year journey to bring Shusaku Endo’s 1966 acclaimed novel to life will be in theaters this Christmas.