Love or Hate it Thought-Provoking Film

Rating: 9/10 (20 April 2015)

The Mission contains all the ingredients needed to be a great film. It was spearheaded by Roland Joffe, a British film director, who wanted to take on another ambitious project like his previous film The Killing Fields (1984). It was shot by Oscar winning cinematographer (Chris Menges) who reunited with director Roland Joffe two years removed from the critically acclaimed film Killing Fields. It was written by a well-respected 2-time Oscar Winner screenwriter Robert Bolt. For those of you who do not know he wrote (Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and A Man For All Seasons) three movies I have seen at least three times each. The film consisted of an all-star cast Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons, Ray McAnally, and Ronald Pickup. There were upcoming actors people who be familiar with, but May not know Liam Neeson was in this and Aiden Quinn was in this. The cast is made up of the finest actors and extras any film crew could ask for to make a film of this magnitude. People reading this review should be familiar with a brilliant conductor, orchestrator, and composer by the name of Ennio Morricone who wrote the Oscar- Nominated worthy musical score of The Mission (1986).
Morricone opened my eyes to the world of such beauty. As other readers, year after year, read this review and think what the heck was he blabbering about I may tune into one of his pieces and find myself in a trance unable to wake for a few minutes to a several minutes when listening to his composed scores. Ennio Morricone like all great composers can assemble a classical score that allows the audience to have a connection with the music. Each piece he has composed was specific for the movie he did, but every music score he has ever composed is symbolic. It represents how the audience can lose themselves in their thoughts and minds for a few minutes to a few hours.
You may know some of his other works such as; The Man with No Name Trilogy (Dollars Trilogy), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Cinema Paradiso (1988), and The Untouchables (1987). All of which got some recognition, but he has composed hundreds of other musical pieces that are considered masterpieces. When he dies he will be remembered always. If you ever heard one of Morricone's musical scores at least one of his musical scores would move your heart, your mind, and your body. It is not possible to not be moved when you listen to the beauty in his music he created. If you are not moved by any of his music you are either deaf or do not have an interest in music.
The film revolved around the events of the Treaty of Madrid 1750; in which at the time Portugal and Spain were the so called "Superpowers" of the known world. Great Britain would become the "Superpower" shortly, but they would lag behind these two countries for now waiting their turn. Portugal and Spain were discovering new lands and colonizing these lands they discovered such as the continent of South America. Both countries wanted a part of South America so they happened to draw an imaginary line across the continent and determined who would control what boundaries.
As history suggests to us countries will try to exploit anything possible to gain control of land and its resources for wealth, influence, and power. It seems the Spanish saw the tribes in their boundaries, the Guarani Indians, as potential converts to Christianity, while Portuguese saw the inhabitants as nothing more than animals, only appearing to look like a human in flesh. Portuguese wanted to use these Indians as slaves for slave labor when the Treaty of Madrid occurred; Spain ceding part of Jesuit Paraguay. Between what each country's government wanted and the Catholic Church the region was unstable for years.
The film is about the work the Jesuit Priests are trying to accomplish in South America before and after the Treaty of Madrid was signed by Spain and Portugal in 1750. The Jesuit Priests unlike certain people tried to learn the inhabitants' culture and language before they tried to convert them to Christianity and set up missionaries. The Portuguese did no such thing to learn their culture as they felt they were inhuman and they could not be taught. I will not bore you with any more details as other reviewers have told you plenty about Robert De Niro's character Rodrigo Mendoza (a slave trader), Jeremy Irons character Father Gabriel (Jesuit Priest). Ray McAnally's character Cardinal Altamirano who must decide what missions will remain under the Church's protection and must be done away. He is sent by the Vatican to decide such matters.
The film is full of moral social commentary, as it shows what happens when an unsuspecting/unwilling people are conquered. Did the Guarani Indians really want to be converted to Christianity? Are we to think a peaceful, remote colony of Guarani Indians left on their own for thousands of years really wanted to become westernized or found? Who are we to judge what culture is more superior?
The Mission forces us to think about topics as well. What would you do if we were part of the Guarani Indians whose culture was taken from us? What would we take with us? Everyone has their own answers to these questions. The film is a timeless classic, but some people will see it not. If everyone who has a good heart or a functioning brain they will realize this film is not bad. The director of the film said this, "The first two movies I made The Killing Fields (1984) and The Mission (1986), I loved making, but in some ways they've been an albatross round one's neck. Everybody thinks that's what you're supposed to be doing." These two movies were huge projects unlike his small projects thereafter.