The Mission
Tags: tragedy

Plot synopsis:
The film is set during the Jesuit Reductions, a program by which Jesuit missionaries set up missions independent of the Spanish state to teach Christianity to the natives. It tells the story of a Spanish Jesuit priest, Father Gabriel (Jeremy Irons), who enters the South American jungle to build a mission and convert a community of Guaraní Indians to Christianity.In the opening scene, a Jesuit missionary is lashed to a cross by the Guarani Indians who live above the spectacular Iguazu Falls. The missionary is then sent over the falls, cross and all, while praying fervently to God. His martyrdom inspires the gentle Father Gabriel to scale the hazardous falls and try to reach out to the tribe. Initially, the Guarani warriors prepare to kill him, but after Gabriel plays an unforgettable solo on his oboe, they allow him to live and he gradually wins their trust.Mercenary and slaver Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert De Niro) makes his living kidnapping natives and selling them to nearby plantations, including the plantation of the Spanish Governor Cabeza (Chuck Low). Mendoza subsequently finds his fiancee (Cherie Lunghi) and his younger half-brother Felipe (Aidan Quinn) in bed together. He kills Felipe in a duel. Although he is acquitted of the killing by Cabeza, Mendoza spirals into depression. Father Gabriel visits and challenges Mendoza to undertake a suitable penance. Mendoza accompanies the Jesuits on their return journey, dragging a heavy bundle containing his armor and sword. After initially tense moments upon reaching the outskirts of the natives' territory, though they recognize him, the natives embrace a tearful Mendoza and cut away his heavy bundle.Father Gabriel's mission is depicted as a place of sanctuary and education for the Guaraní. Moved by the Guaraní's acceptance, Mendoza wishes to help at the mission and Father Gabriel gives him a Bible. In time, Mendoza takes vows and becomes a Jesuit under Father Gabriel and his colleague Father Fielding (Liam Neeson).The Jesuit missions were safe, because they were protected under Spanish law. The Treaty of Madrid (in the year 1750) reapportions the land in South America. The land on which the Jesuit missions were located was transferred to the Portuguese, and Portuguese law allows slavery. The Portuguese colonials seek to enslave the natives, and as the independent Jesuit missions might impede this, Papal emissary Cardinal Altamirano (Ray McAnally), a former Jesuit priest himself, is sent from the Vatican to survey the missions and decide which, if any, should be allowed to remain.Under pressure from both Cabeza and Portuguese Governor, Don Hontar (Ronald Pickup), Cardinal Altamirano is forced to choose between two evils. If he rules in favor of the colonists, the indigenous peoples will become enslaved; if he rules in favour of the missions, the entire Jesuit Order may be condemned by the Portuguese and the European Catholic Church could fracture. Altamirano visits the missions and is amazed at their industry and success, both in converting the Indians and, in some cases, economically.At Father Gabriel's mission of San Carlos he tries to explain the reasons behind closing the mission and instructs the Guaraní that they must leave. The Guaraní question his authority, and Father Gabriel and Mendoza, under threat of excommunication, state their intention to defend the mission should the plantation owners and colonists attack. They are, however, divided on how to do this, and they debate how to respond to the impending military attack. Father Gabriel believes that violence is a direct crime against God. Mendoza, however, decides to break his vows to militarily defend the Mission. Against Father Gabriel's wishes, he teaches the natives the European art of war and once more takes up his sword.When a joint Portuguese and Spanish force of soldiers attack, the mission is initially defended by Mendoza, Fielding and the Guaraní. They are no match for the military force and Mendoza is shot and fatally wounded. When soldiers enter the mission village, they are slowed by the singing of Father Gabriel and the Guaraní women and children who march in the procession. The soldiers are reluctant to fire at a Mass. In spite of this, the Portuguese commander orders the attack and Father Gabriel, the rest of the priests and most of the Guaraní, including women and children, are gunned down. Only a handful escape into the jungle. Fielding sacrifices himself by killing the Portuguese commander and a few more soldiers before he himself is killed.In a final exchange between Cardinal Altamirano and Don Hontar, Hontar laments that what happened was unfortunate but inevitable because "we must work in the world; the world is thus." Altamirano replies, "No, thus have we made the world. Thus have I made it."Days later, a canoe of young children return to the scene of the Mission massacre and salvage a few belongings. They set off up the river, going deeper into the jungle, with the thought that the events will remain in their memories. A final title declares that Jesuits and others continue to fight for the rights of indigenous people. The text of John 1:5 is displayed: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

Review: This man sent from Rome by the Pope himself has the power of life and death over the Guarani Indians and the Jesuit priests who have dedicated their lives to Christian service in the deepest regions of the South American rainforest.The film isn't perfect by any means: I would have liked better representation of at least one Guarani character but the integrity of Joffe's direction and Chris Menges' spectacular camera-work make this one film you have to see.
This story, presented here in a condensed way but developed in the film is so powerful that it leads to reflections: what, in fact, reigns in our lives; why good people have to suffer, why we are forced to do what we hate, it is so effortless to destroy while to build requires so much strength, why the world turns our good deeds into evil, etc.
I think that most readers will agree with me that THE MISSION is a masterpiece, a film that opens people to new horizons of understanding the profound thoughts that are there in our lives if we are willing to reflect on them or not.
This is a drama, not an "action film," but the movie has extended violent ending, and sometimes is shocking in that finale.Jeremy Irons, as the dedicated Jesuit who heads the mission, and Robert De Niro in a surprise role as the killer slave-trader-turned-repentant priest are both excellent in their leading roles.
But that is NOT all there is to this great film: Ennio Morricone's music reaches its greatest power, its most poignant intensity, its most gratifying melodic line, right here in `The Mission', surpassing everything this Italian composer had ever done before  even with his great friend, Sergio Leone.
This is a movie that will always stay in my memory.First time I saw it, back in the late 80's,I thought it was too brutal and even morbid in a way.But the second and third time I was swept off by its non-conformistic beauty.The story begins unusually,with De Niro's character killing his own brother over a woman.The good priest in Irons' interpretation steps in as guiding light and leads him to salvation,which means that he takes him to his own Mission deep in the jungles.There De Niro is born again as an individual,though he doesn't lose his warrior instincts and I believe much of his story revolves around dealing with his newfound identity as a Christian and struggle to shake his old militant ways.The film gives us some strong performances and both De Niro and Irons should be praised for they pull it off wonderfully in their parts.I believe this to be De Niro's last great performance.The movie is beautifully shot,a Roland Joffe trademark,and though it ends tragically it isn't a sad film.Its poignant and highly enlightening and I believe many souls were deeply changed after seeing it.The Morricone score is brilliant as always.A nice supporting cast includes Liam Neeson and Aidan Quinn in some of their best early work.
Unfortunately, the end product isn't quite cinematic magic.Set in the 18th century, Jeremy Irons stars as Father Gabriel, one of several Spanish Jesuit priests (including Liam Neeson) assigned to convert the Guarini tribe of South America into Christians.
Determined to prevent such an action at any cost, Mendoza takes up his sword once more, coming into conflict with Father Gabriel's peaceful approach.The Mission was released in 1986 with little success in theaters, despite garnering a respectable 7 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
The story is a tragic one, but with a message of hope that there are indeed people like Irons and DeNiro for whom the positive aspects of their religion is not just platitudes.The best way to see The Mission is back to back with At Play In The Fields Of The Lord which is a 20th century look at the same problem.
However the movie is about Jesuits and both native and non-native laymen are backdrops to the development of the conflicts exhibited in the priests played by DeNiro and Irons.I certainly recommend this movie as a great drama that presents interesting questions in a formally pleasing way..
It is one of the foremost means to work upon man with an effect of marvel." I don't think there is a more eloquent movie moment to illustrate that statement than the scene from Roland Joffé's "The Mission" where the Guarani Indians find Father Gabriel (Jermeny Irons) in their territory.The previous Jesuit priest who tried to convert them ended up tied in a cross and sent to his death in the vertiginous Iguazu falls, probably the film's most spectacular and defining shot.
As the film concludes." The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." Faith, like music, speaks for something hidden in the soul that no one can't reach, the belief in people's inner goodness, that no one is beyond any redemption, that's what Catholicism is about, and I'm not even Catholic, but within my own religion, I can respond to a film like "The Mission", and that's what Ennio Morricone's music accomplishes and what makes it one of the greatest score ever made.
Led by a majestic score by Ennio Morricone and sweeping cinematography and beautiful shots of the lush South American wilderness, this movie is one of the best of the 1980's.
The movie has been overlooked mostly because of it's Christian themes, but as it's about saving people and a man of the cloth, it should have these themes.This film is about how a Jesuit and a slave trader unite to save a South American tribe from relocation and other dangers.The acting is really good.
It deals with the tale of a Spanish Jesuit priest , called Father Gabriel (Jeremy Irons), who goes into the South American jungle to build a mission and convert a community of Guaraní Indians to Christianity .
The film was Roland Joffé's epic "The Mission" with the unlikely cast of Jeremy Irons, Robert DeNiro, Liam Neeson and Ray McNally.
While nominated and winning many international awards, The Mission was mostly ignored by Hollywood, receiving only one Oscar (cinematography).The complexities of the story telling in "The Mission" are almost too much to take in in a single film lasting a bit more than two hours, but Jaffe has woven them together with a touch that is both delicate and profound, creating a tapestry as impressive and intricate as any medieval Flemish tapestry, its story held together flawlessly.While supposedly created for our own preservation and edification, politics and religion have done as much or more unspeakable horrors in the names of God and Man as they have good and in "The Mission" we see the bloody result, despite the effort of a few rebel priests who believe in the power of love and the natives with whom they try to share their world.
The villains are plentiful in this "true tale" and Joffe never disguises them, allowing the deceptive simplicities of "good versus evil" run its predictable course, as they twist and turn everything they touch into the inevitable choked and knotted apocalypse of sorrow that is always the end result of greed.Despite its bleak, often hopeless nature, Joffe nonetheless gives us a miracle: a film of such ineffable beauty that stirs both heart and mind through the combination of remarkable acting, a wilderness captured in breathtaking cinematography, battles both physical and spiritual, and wed it all to one of the most remarkable musical scores of the late 20th century..
The cinematography is beautiful, the score is perfect for the movie, and Jeremy Iron turns in one of the best performances of his career.The movie can be a little slow moving at times, and I understand how everyone may not like it, but there are certainly much worse movies out there to watch.
I love the story (and the way its told), I love the score (Morricone rules!), I love the photography (simply amazing and fascinating), I love the acting of both the main actors (don't need to name them) who help the talented director Roland Joffe' depicting one of the finest images of the struggles the native South Americans have been through centuries ago just to keep their culture and identity alive (and the battle is still raging, as we can read in the ending lines).
This is a movie filled with pure and deep humanity, charity, this is about mistakes and forgiveness, sins and redemption, the power of weapons against the weight of love, but most of all, the lessons we read between its lines is that, even in death, hope never dies, like the memory of great people will live forever as the living keep it alive.
The film begins with Jeremy Irons (Giving a beautiful performance) And Liam Neeson (in one of his first movies) go to the waterfall where Gabriel (Irons) is to find the old mission where the old missonary died.
Robert De Niro is the only reason that I watched the movie.I am an absolute fan of his.His Hairstyle in this picture makes him look like the Only Hero around.His performance when he plunges his knife to his brother and the scenes where he cries out loud and the final scene of his death makes this film memorable.Jeremy Irons provided as the believer and a guide.Liam Neeson even though got small screen time,he put up a good show.The film even though is slow and little dragging at times brings an entirely new mood to the viewers.
The Viceroy, played by Ray McAnally, gives the best performance in the film as the ex-Jesuit Priest who now obeys the king and not the teachings of the church.
Robert De Niro excellently portrays Mendoza, a converted Jesuit, whose former life reflects the convictions of his enslavement against the South American Indians.
Im a sucker for movies based on historical events and this movie portrays a beautiful captivating story based on the occupation of Spain in South America and the profitable slaving of the Amazonian rain forest people.What truly makes this a classic is the cinematography which earned it the Oscar and Golden Globe for this catorgory in 87.You top this off with some of Ennio Morricone best work and you have the making of some uplifting scenes which will humble you.The story is simple as it happened a lot in the 1700's.
De Niro is a slaver and the film is based around his way of life and finding god.The catholic church is the other big part in this movie and this is represented by some fine acting by the late Ray McAnally who plays Altamirano.The soundtrack will grab you the scenes will leave you awed and the things we did to each other will appall and inspire....enjoy a 80s classic.
When the story begins, a lone Jesuit priest, Father Gabriel (Jeremy Irons), treks through the jungle in South America to try to establish a mission where one had previously failed.
If you think you've seen DeNiro's best, you have to see this film - true, too, of Jeremy Irons's performance.
Anyone who cares about what we did to the Native Americans in the United States needs to see what the Europeans did to the indigenous people of South America - as is brought out (at least one side of it) in this deeply touching movie about early power struggles in the New World.
So it's just the main plot's topic of this movie which then focus on the personal story of father Gabriel (played by Jeremy Irons), a Jesuit missionary, and Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert de Niro) a former slave trader which was converted to the Christian faith (and to the Jesuits) after kill his brother (because of a woman).
An emotionally journey in the South American villages of Brazil where Father Gabriel wants to bring Christianity to the natives and ex-slave hunter Mendoza to his mission in order to find peace for killing his brother.
It is also a film with "torn in different thoughts" heroes, torn between learned duties (as a priest for Mendoza) and his past, a conflict between catholic ideals and love as the only spirit and feeling who will live after all (a great final scene , a sunny and silent day in the jungle).
6 Academy Awards Nominations (including Best picture, Director for Joffe, a remarkable original music score from Morricone,for the incredible editing in the battle scene for Jim Clark etc) ,one win for the outrageous cinematography (once again) by Chris Menges, and a pair of -should be AAN- great performances from Irons and De Niro.
The mission starring Robert De Niro is a musical epic in itself.Fantastic score by Ennio Marricone.Soundtrack is fantastic.The performances given by Robert De Niro & Jeremy Irons are a blessing for all cinema lovers.This is a very good movie.The mission shows the struggle of two men who want to preach Christianity to the natives living in Brazil.When Spain sells the colony to Portugal,both are forced to defend all that they have built.We see a contrast between two men.Both have their own ways.De Niro wants to protect them by using firearms,as once he was a hunter.Whearas Irons is a committed priest who does not want to take firearms.He believes that god would protect them.The mission is a cinematic beauty with a great camera-work.
I've forgotten some of the details as I only saw the movie once when it was first released, but its basic themes & main characters have stayed fresh in my mind all these years, particularly the sense of awe I felt upon leaving the theatre following the dramatic closing scenes.Set in the mid 18th Century, the story revolves around Father Gabriel, a Jesuit priest and missionary, who travels to the South American wilderness, establishing an evangelizing mission to convert the native Guarani peoples to Christianity and teach them certain aspects of European civilization.
However, the compelling aspects of this magnificent film are the character portrayals of Father Gabriel & Mendoza, the sacrifices these Jesuits are prepared to make for this mission, the beauty of the peaceful native Guarani people, the abundant symbolism, the sense of grave injustice that these South American natives are nothing more than helpless pawns to European politicking, and the brutal atrocities to which they are subjected at the hands of the encroaching Portuguese.
The main focus of this part of the story surrounds the acts and deeds of Father Gabriel (portrayed to near-perfection by Jeremy Irons, who may be best known as the villain in Die Hard 3), who is desperately struggling--but succeeding in his struggles--at converting a small tribe of natives, who later work with him in the building of the mission San Carlos.
Robert De Niro changes his South American slave trading ways, and becomes a missionary with Jeremy Irons and Liam Neeson.
While many movies that deal with the exploration of the western hemisphere present a simplified and inaccurate portrayal of the European and Indigenous people's roles in that segment of world history, The Mission is written with a depth and complexity that better reflects what was really happening at that period of time.
Irons plays a Jesuit priest who sets up a mission in the South American jungle which is then threatened by greedy merchants and political factions within the church with De Nero as a converted mercenary and slave trader.
The dialogue, however, is such that none of the performances, except perhaps for Mr. Irons, are very memorable.Apparently The Mission also seeks to give the audience a moral lesson about modern day transgressions against the Guarani and other indigenous people in the Americas, but this is not particularly effective and comes across as cloying and, frankly, patronizing towards the natives, who, as stated earlier, are simply props in this story.Those with an interest in colonial South American history will find this film watchable, as will anyone who enjoys gorgeous scenery.
I remain moved and enthralled by his change of heart in this film, and his ability to constantly, in every movie he has ever made, but this one especially, make you believe and care about him.Jeremy Irons has a wonderfully subdued yet brilliant part as the missionary who brings DeNiro into the flock.
The highlights of this film about Jesuit priests in the South American jungles are beautiful cinematography and an intriguing score.
Jeremy Irons feels right for his role, but it's tough to accept Robert DeNiro in period films -- he's such a remarkable contemporary actor, and he's created such iconic representations of modern urban life, that he feels out of place in something like this.The film is a feast for the eyes and ears though, with Chris Menges, who had won an Oscar for photographing "The Killing Fields", adding a second trophy to his mantle for his work here; and Ennio Morricone providing an instantly classic score.Grade: A-.
Robert de Niro and Jeremy Irons give great performances here as Jesuit priests that yearn to save and teach the Indians.
You know,this is a movie for which its hard to find many words to describe it.Its my favorite Jeremy Irons part and clearly overshadows anything else he has done.De Niro is great as usual and we see a new side of him here.Film features scopes of beautiful nature and also wonderful actors as Liam Neeson and Aidan Quinn.Bravo Joffe!.
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).
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.
Like i said earlier braveheart is my all times favorites , but The Mission is now sited next to it at the same level, This is really a great film and the scene when the indians accept De Niro in their group is really touching and one of the best scene ever.