If this ever comes to a revival house near you, run as fast as you can to see it!

Rating: 10/10 (9 March 2017)

This is the story of atonement, the story of forgiveness, and the story of how new faith takes more drastic steps than the old faith. While it is difficult to believe Robert De Niro as a Spanish warrior, it comes to be easy as his transformation occurs. In the opening scene, he's catching natives of South America and turning them into slaves. He comes upon the Jesuit mission run by Jeremy Irons and makes it clear that he sees these natives as animals meant to serve the "civilized" European than be taught about Christianity. A sudden turn of events involving younger brother Aidan Quinn and his lover, Cheri Lunghi, turns De Niro into a shell of himself, and thanks to the head of the Jesuit ministry, he ends up right back where he started, in the South American jungles, aiding Irons in creating the mission. But his old cohorts become his enemies, determined to destroy the mission and make more profits with new slaves.
While Irons' missionary is a peaceful man, more prepared to die than fight, conflict soon erupts between the methods of the two men now on the same side. A young Liam Neeson plays another one of the missionaries, finding that he has a combination of both men's beliefs, and in the end, they fight two wars with their enemies: the spiritual war of God where death brings honor, and the violent war of man, where the point becomes to fight regardless of the outcome and to exhaust the enemy in a world that they aren't completely prepared for. Of course, there's gorgeous jungle photography where in the opening, the natives actually send a missionary to his death, floating over a huge waterfall on a cross. It's with the power of peace through a pure soul and simple musical cords that Irons managed to get through, and that musical theme is one that will sing in your heart long after the film is over.
While some of the casting made me cringe, particularly of a few of the enemies, I found that De Niro and irons really became their characters. De Niro's breakdown after a climb up a huge mountain range is extremely emotional, and as he is forgiven by the natives who obviously recognize him (but were lucky enough to escape), more emotions take over. The children, especially, are enchanting, and you'll not soon forget the one with the infectious laugh. The children become just as heroic as the adults, and if you are like me, you'll jeer at the fat obnoxious slave trader who refers to a singing native child as a trained monkey. When he keeps refusing to allow the missionaries to speak by his constant braying of "Your eminence!", I wanted to stand up in the middle of the movie theater and demand that he shut up. This is a film that will make you look at the evils of racism and slavery, and condemn the perpetrators to hell, unlike Irons, who obviously had the ability to forgive even under the most vile of circumstances.