Commonweal on "Into Great Silence"

The new issue of Commonweal includes one columnist's thoughts on Philip Gröning's Into Great Silence and the Viriginia Tech massacre. The writer (I can't find his name on the page) says,

Gilead

Not everyone is so enchanted by the film. Susan Dunne (Baltimore Sun) complains,

Into Great Silence

Her conclusion:

...this is a monastery; there aren't 164 minutes worth of things to see.

Well, not unless you're looking closely.

I'm sorry that the film proved so frustrating for Susan, but I'm also surprised that, as a film critic, she found it so taxing. Maybe she'll prefer the nearly three hours of action in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, where there's more stuff to look at in the first ten minutes than Into Great Silence can find in three hours. But will Pirates serve up even a fraction of the food for thought offered by Silence?

Gröning's film isn't about what we see, but rather... how we see it.

I don't think Gröning "expects" anything. He invites. Those who have ears to hear, and eyes to see... let them hear and see. Those who have patience... let them be blessed. Those who don't, let them miss out.

In fact, I think it would be interesting to read Susan's comments again, and then read all of the quotes collected and arranged so perfectly last Thursday at Opus, right here.

Am I being too harsh?