High, wide and handsome

Rating: 9/10 (6 July 2006)

Roland Joffe's movie belongs to that epic tradition of British cinema one associates with Richard Attenborough or David Lean, (it is scripted by Robert Bolt, a long-time collaborator of Lean's), and is none the worse for it. It succeeds in being intelligent, intimate and full-blown, not quite in the "Lawerence of Arabia" class but very much in the same ballpark.
The subject is the Catholic Church and the Portuguese government's treatment of the Guarani Indians in the conquest of South America. A different producer, (in this case, Lord Puttnam), and director, (Joffe, finding his feet magnificently), might have handled the material differently, filmed it in a more abrasive style befitting its subject matter, but if the film is mostly high, wide and handsome rather than dark and genuinely disturbing, you can't fault it's makers sincerity or skill in delivering the goods. It is both moving and exciting.
Unfortunately, the performances don't measure up to either the subject or to the scenery with the exception of Ray MacNally's duplicitous Cardinal and Bolt's script reduces everything to black and white with no shades of grey; not so Chris Menge's luminous colour photography while Ennio Morricone's score is among his very finest. Not the masterpiece, then, it first appeared to be but not one to be written off either.