Silence Themes

In Silence, Father Sebastien Rodrigues is more obsessed with Judas than a disgruntled Bob Dylan fan. It's easy to understand why, though: after his former teacher has supposedly betrayed the Cathol...

If we were making the film adaptation of Silence (instead of some schmuck named Martin Scorsese or whatever), we'd totally choose "Losing My Religion" as the opening song. In the novel, Father Seba...

As a Jesuit missionary of Portuguese descent, Silence's Father Sebastien Rodrigues experiences a lot of crazy new things during his time in Japan. He meets poor villagers who are saint-like in thei...

In Silence, we see a sharp distinction between religion and spirituality. On the one hand, we've got religion: a man-made system meant to help us get in touch with a higher power. On the other, we'...

Set in impoverished 1600s Japan, Silence features no shortage of suffering. We watch poor villagers struggle day in and day out just to put scraps on the table. We see Japanese Christians face unbe...

Silence is pretty much just Lost In Translation—but with Catholic priests instead of Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. Not a fair trade, we know, but you'll survive. In the novel, we follow Fat...

Let's be real: it would be terrifying to be in Father Sebastien Rodrigues's shoes in Silence. The dude is a straight-up fugitive, hunted down by the most vicious samurai you'll find outside of a Wo...

In Silence, Father Sebastien Rodrigues can't stop obsessing over sacrifice. No, not the Elton John tearjerker—the idea of actually giving up your life for others. That's heavy stuff, brah. But th...