Will Martin Scorsese Ever Give Us Some Silence?
This is your chance. Read the book. Read it slowly, share it with your friends, and discuss it. Savor the experience before the movie changes the experience and prevents millions of moviegoers from ever having that first, memorable journey through the story the way it was meant to be experienced.
To be frank, I hope nobody tries to make another movie of Shusaku Endo's novel Silence.
The experience of reading this novel is so harrowing, so moving, that I would prefer to have people experience the story on the page, and in their own imaginations, rather than have them spend two hours watching how someone else pictured it. Participating in this novel, and living in it for a while, by reading it... it's an incredibly personal experience.
Nevertheless, I can't help but wonder what Martin Scorsese would do, bringing it to the big screen as he has wanted to for so many years. He has repeatedly declared that Silence would be his next movie. With casting underway and locations being discussed, it certainly looked like it would be his follow-up to Hugo.
But then, things changed again. Now he's making The Wolf of Wall Street.
At first, a lot of Scorsese fans and admirers of Endo's novel groaned, disappointed that they would once again have to wait to see what is becoming one of the most talked-about unmade movies of the last 20 years.
But this time, things are getting worse.
Breaking news: Scorsese's producer is suing him. Deadline reports:
Silence
Oh my.
Look, I could join the host of bloggers and journalists in analyzing this and picking sides, but I don't like getting all caught up in the behind-the-scenes drama. I care too much about Endo's story... I don't want a bunch of show-biz bickering on my mind when I think of it.
So here's what I recommend...
Ignore the big brouhaha over who's suing whom, what was promised, etc.
This is your chance. Read the book. Read it slowly, share it with your friends, and discuss it. Those of you who read Cormac McCarthy's The Road before the dissatisfying movie arrived know what I'm talking about. Contemplate Endo's vision before someone else's celebrity-loaded interpretation delivers the story differently and prevents millions of moviegoers from seeing the story unfold the way Endo meant for it to be experienced.
As Dr. Luke Reinsma, my friend and mentor at Seattle Pacific University, wrote:
Silence