Exciting ethical common sense, excellent music and no moralist finger wagging

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2006)

Set on the borders of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina in 1750, this exceptional film tells a tragic tale of European colonialism that not only had direct relevance to foreign interference in Latin America at the time of the film's release in 1986 (Nicaragua, El Salvador, etc.) but also, and more positively, to developments in more recent times (Venezuela, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina). Joffé's film features Jeremy Irons and Robert De Niro, the latter in one of his best performances. It also features the Waunana people who, enacting the Guaraní Indians protected by humanist Jesuits but eventually massacred by colonialist mercenaries working for Portuguese slave traders, also stand out as the film's true stars: they present credible, tangible individuals and never come across as exotic extras. Another powerful performance is given by Roy MacAnally whose character, Cardinal Altimirano, embodies the dilemma of the "good man" trying to work within an oppressive system and whose strategic efforts to save the Jesuit order in Europe lead to an unpardonable bloodbath.
Morricone's score for The Mission is exceptional. "Come farne un tutt'uno?" - how to make an integral whole out of two humanist music traditions (European and Native American) - was his problem. That he succeeded to fuse these convincingly is patent. For example, "Gabriel's Oboe", mixed with the syncretic choral "Vita Nostra" and with its lead played alternately by oboe and recorder (flauto diritto of quena type), became a favourite to play at Brazilian weddings, while the soundtrack album has been a major commercial success worldwide. Morricone draws on influences ranging from the European avant-garde (those Penderecki-like slithering string clusters with huge death-drum hits at the very start, for example) to the thoroughly singable (e.g. main theme), from baroque chamber music to the suggestive use of Native American sonorities. His music contributes massively to the thoroughly humanist message of this movie and I find it incomprehensible that the composer did not receive an Oscar for this score. No matter: The Mission is a set work in my courses on Music and the Moving Image.