coming soon... hopefully - part 2 of my silence review
I've finally managed to start researching the second part of my three-part review of Silence.
For the second part I was planning to contrast two reviews I read, but failed to bookmark. One lavished praise on the film, in part for expanding on abstruse theological arguments that aren't apparent in the film unless you're already familiar with them. The other criticised it in terms that fairly obviously missed the point.
However having failed to bookmark them I'm having to trawl through a dispiriting series of reviews that tend to do one of three things:
The more interesting, whether from a secular or religious viewpoint, praise the film but say that it may be too long/too low-key/too religious/too violent for audiences.
Next are the point-missing reviews that see the length and the interior nature of the film and dismiss it as boring without even attempting to engage with it.
Worst of all are the christian, even some catholic, reviews that see the film solely as about apostasy and say that it's damaging because it takes an unchristian and compromised view of the subject. Though at least one of those was written by someone who apparently thinks that films if they're viewed without a strong sense of moral values can lead you into the occult. And another by someone who tells us they like films with glorious and futile martyrdoms (like Braveheart), apparently oblivious to the fact that Rodrigues in the film (and book) Silence harbours visions of exactly such an end in imitation of Christ, yet is gradually forced to realise that his actions have consequences for others.
So I've been banging my head on the desk quite a bit. The review's on its way. I hope I can find the pieces I was planning to use, but if I can't then expect me to facepalm my way through various obtuse readings of the film.
The moral of the story; bookmark shit if you're planning to return to it, but not just yet. Especially if it's something every doofus with a keyboard is going to write about, thus clogging the internet with repetitive cruft.
For the second part I was planning to contrast two reviews I read, but failed to bookmark. One lavished praise on the film, in part for expanding on abstruse theological arguments that aren't apparent in the film unless you're already familiar with them. The other criticised it in terms that fairly obviously missed the point.
However having failed to bookmark them I'm having to trawl through a dispiriting series of reviews that tend to do one of three things:
The more interesting, whether from a secular or religious viewpoint, praise the film but say that it may be too long/too low-key/too religious/too violent for audiences.
Next are the point-missing reviews that see the length and the interior nature of the film and dismiss it as boring without even attempting to engage with it.
Worst of all are the christian, even some catholic, reviews that see the film solely as about apostasy and say that it's damaging because it takes an unchristian and compromised view of the subject. Though at least one of those was written by someone who apparently thinks that films if they're viewed without a strong sense of moral values can lead you into the occult. And another by someone who tells us they like films with glorious and futile martyrdoms (like Braveheart), apparently oblivious to the fact that Rodrigues in the film (and book) Silence harbours visions of exactly such an end in imitation of Christ, yet is gradually forced to realise that his actions have consequences for others.
So I've been banging my head on the desk quite a bit. The review's on its way. I hope I can find the pieces I was planning to use, but if I can't then expect me to facepalm my way through various obtuse readings of the film.
The moral of the story; bookmark shit if you're planning to return to it, but not just yet. Especially if it's something every doofus with a keyboard is going to write about, thus clogging the internet with repetitive cruft.
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