Blessed are the Guilt-ridden

Rating: Null/10 (15 August 2000)

The Mission may well be a film about the beautiful South American jungle, and one man's conversion from slave trader to Jesuit priest, and another priest's refusal to use violent means in the face of greater violence, but FIRST AND FOREMOST The Mission is a film about guilt.
How do I know this? Because of the structure of the film (which IMDb reviewers seem to have ignored). It was not a random act of editing that parenthetically placed Cardinal Altamirano's (McAnally) papal letter around the plot involving Mendoza (De Niro) and Gabriel (Irons). The film begins with Altamirano dictating a letter to the Pope about how "the little matter...is settled" . The film ends (after the credits have rolled, nota bene) with his placing of the letter in an envelope to be dispatched to Rome. Referring to the destructive struggle between the Catholic Church and the imperial powers of Spain and Portugal in South America as a "little matter" is a guilt-ridden irony on the Cardinal's part worthy of Shakespeare. Not only that, it is guilt-ridden irony in which we are all implicated by virtue of McAnally's searing at-camera stare which closes the film. Not even Costner's "It's up to you" moment in JFK invited the audience to pass this much judgement.
To this end, the marvellous acting and beautiful cinematography and score are mere technical devices to heighten the sense of guilt (among the film's makers if not the audience). The film is a worthy attempt; McAnally's portrayal of Altamirano's unease even worthier; but be warned, this is a film which makes sinners of us all.