You should join these folks on their mission to the mission

Rating: 6/10 (9 August 2019)

"The Mission" is a British/French co-production from 1986, so this one is already over 30 years old. It is mostly in the English language, but there's parts in all kinds of different languages actually, so anyway you will need subtitles for sure. Writer is Robert Bolt and he won a Golden Globe for his screenplay here, more than consolation for his work not getting in at the Oscars that time, especially as he was already a 2-time Oscar winner back then. The director is Roland Joffé and as I am a pretty big fan of The Killing Fields, I was curious about this one from briefly afterwards because these two are really his career-defining works, also in terms of awards recognition. These slightly over 2 hours we got here scored many Oscar nominations, also important ones, even if "only" it eventually won for the cinematography. But I can see why it sure is a visually stunning film at times. A bit of a pity neither Irons nor De Niro got in. I am actually a bit surprised De Niro got virtually no awards recognition for his turn here. Irons got more, including a Golden Globe nod, he was probably also closer to an Oscar nom. And you will also find a pretty young (not very young) Liam Neeson in the cast list in one of the biggest supporting roles. But his character unlike the other two was really only mostly interesting for his dying scene. It is kinda telling he is surrounded by angry natives, roaring waterfalls and brutal nature, but the one thing that kills him is a bullet from the firearm of an English soldier. Anyway, now we are deep into the story here. The mission mentioned in the title is a reference to a key location of the movie, a place where South American natives are shown the priviliges of Christianity, which is also good for them because they really could get away from the concept of physical abuse and slavery looming above them. This really is the main conflict. The entire film is almost like an investigation on how things will continue afterwards taking profit, superiority, human rights and more into account. Oh well, not really the entire movie. The first 30-45 minutes belong to De Niro (and also Irons actually) as he is a brutal slave trader who kills his own brother because the girl he likes prefers the latter over him. His path to redemption when joining the Christians is key to this movie and I thought he was really good. He is so strong when it comes to portryaing characters with a great deal of violence looming under the surface who still somehow have the desire to become honorable and kind citizens. The final development with how he returns to being a brute for the cause is also interesting. There was obviously no way he would survive the movie.
With Irons' character it surprised me a bit more. But these two have great on-screen chemistry anyway and made me genuinely enjoy this film at times. The subject is also highly interesting I think, not only because it is based considerably on actual events. Even I as somebody who does not care too much about religion could get sucked in by the subject in here, maybe not as much as for Scorsese's recent Japan-themed film, but still. By the way these two are not too different in terms of tone and style I'd say, even if they play in completely different parts of the world. And fittingly Neeson is in both of them with like 30 years in-between. But lets not drift away now. This one we have here was not great, or just on some occasions, but pretty good overall and certainly interesting with all kinds of strong performances deep down to the supporting players. I am a bit surprised critics did not like it that much. It's also inferior to the other Joffé film I mentioned earlier, but only because that one is so amazing, not because this one here is weak or anything. Glad it got a great deal of awards recognition. Another thing I liked is that because of the connection to actual events, you could never be sure how this film would unfold and I liked that a lot, even if I somewhat expected an unhappy ending. But they sure played with our expectations with the official about to decide it all obviously being moved and it felt as if he could decide in our "heroes'" favor, but the explanation why he didn't in the end and why he went with them to see a different mission and tribe totally made sense. So lack of realism is not a problem at all for this really good film. I think unless you really hate historic movies about foreign cultures, then you should join Joffé in his ride from Vietnam to South America here. The film felt much shorter than it actually is and that is always a good sign. Positively recommended. Also of course almost a must-see for my fellow De Niro fans. Go for it! Oh yeah, I saw this as part of a film retrospective on Morricone. Yep he did the soundtrack here, probably not too expected except he worked with De Niro on quite a few occasions, but most people think of these classic westerns first when hearing his name and right fully so. That's all folks. As it is not an American production I'm glad this one got so much awards recognition, also in America. See it!