Imprisoned in the self

Rating: Null/10 (4 November 2003)

After several viewings of The Mission, the very core of meaning is borne by these few words:
Cardinal Altamirano: And you have the effrontery to tell me that this . . . was necessary?
Cabeza: I did what I had to do. Given a legitimate purpose which you sanctioned, I would have to say yes. In truth, yes.
Hontar: You had no alternative, Your Eminence. We must work in the world. The world is thus.
Cardinal Altamirano: No, senhor Hontar. Thus have we made the world. Thus have I made it.
Such words are dedicated to those of us who remain convinced that history and human events are mere relics of school rooms, divorced from daily life. Cardinal Altamirano's last sentence is intensified by his reappearance in an unusual final scene which follows hard upon the end of film credits, unseen by most theater patrons as they find their way out of the auditorium. He speaks not a word nor a preachment. His world-weary eyes engage us directly, and we know the meaning of this baleful stare beyond its telling.