The Mission (film)

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The Mission

Original movie poster
Directed by Roland Joffé
Produced by Fernando Ghia
David Puttnam
Written by Robert Bolt
Starring Robert De Niro
Jeremy Irons
Ray McAnally
Aidan Quinn
Cherie Lunghi
Liam Neeson
Music by Ennio Morricone
Distributed by Warner Brothers
Release date(s) Flag of Spain 29 September 1986
Flag of United States 31 October 1986
Running time 126 min.
Language English
Budget $17,218,000
IMDb profile

The Mission is a 1986 British film about the experiences of a Jesuit missionary in eighteenth century South America. The film was written by Robert Bolt and directed by Roland Joffé. It stars Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons, Ray McAnally, Aidan Quinn, Cherie Lunghi and Liam Neeson. The music was scored by the renowned Italian composer Ennio Morricone, and is considered by some to be among his best film scores, being listed at #23 on AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The movie is set during the Jesuit Reductions, a programme 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.

He is later joined by a reformed Portuguese mercenary, Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert De Niro), who sees the Jesuit mission as a sanctuary and a place of forgiveness for the murder of his brother.

Mendoza and Gabriel try to defend the community against the cruelty of Portuguese colonials, who are trying to enslave the Guaraní under the new powers granted by the Treaty of Madrid. The mission, which was once under Spanish protection, has been handed over to the Portuguese while the Vatican (represented by Papal emissary Alta Mirano) has ordered the Jesuits to withdraw from the territory above the falls.

Eventually, a combined Spanish and Portuguese force attacks the mission and, failing to see the simple life of the Guarani as anything but threatening (contrary to Father Gabriel and Mendoza), kill many of them as well as all the priests. Mendoza, who dies trying to save Guarani children on a bridge, finally receives the redemption he had been searching for.

Spoilers end here.
Actor Jeremy Irons, playing a Spanish Jesuit priest, scales Iguazu Falls during his missionary journey to the Guarani Indians.
Actor Jeremy Irons, playing a Spanish Jesuit priest, scales Iguazu Falls during his missionary journey to the Guarani Indians.

[edit] Historical basis

"The Mission" is based on events surrounding the Treaty of Madrid in 1750, in which Spain ceded part of Jesuit Paraguay to Portugal. The movie's narrator, "Altamirano", speaking in hindsight in 1758, corresponds to the actual Andalusian Jesuit Father Luis Altamirano, who had been sent to Paraguay in 1752 to transfer territory from Spain to Portugal. He oversaw the transfer of seven missions south and east of the Río Uruguay, that had been settled by Guaranis and Jesuits in the 1600s. As "compensation", Spain had promised each mission 4,000 pesos, or fewer than 1 peso for each of the circa 30,000 Guaranis of the seven missions, while the cultivated lands, livestock and buildings were estimated to be worth 7-16 million pesos. The movie's climax is the Guarani War of 1754-1756, during which historical Guaranis defended their homes against Spanish-Portuguese forces implementing the Treaty of Madrid. For the movie, a recreation was made of one of the seven missions, São Miguel das Missões.[1]

The waterfall setting of the movie suggests the combination of these events with the story of older missions, founded between 1610-1630 on the Río Paranapanemá above the Guairá Falls, from which Paulista slave raids forced Guaranis and Jesuits to flee in 1631. The battle at the end of the movie evokes the 8-day battle of Mboboré in 1641, a battle fought on land as well in boats on rivers, in which the Jesuit-organized, firearmed Guarani forces stopped the Paulista raiders.[2]

[edit] Awards

[edit] Golden Globes

nominated for:

[edit] Academy Awards

won:

nominated for:

[edit] Trivia

  • Jeremy Irons also played a Jesuit priest in his role as Aramis in The Man in the Iron Mask.
  • In the 2006 film The Holiday, Miles (Jack Black) picks up the 2-disc edition of the DVD in a rental store, insisting that Iris (Kate Winslet) should watch it for its amazing soundtrack.
  • The Indian characters in the film do not actually speak guarani but Wawnana, the language of the Colombian Indians who performed in the movie (external link).

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ James Schofield Saeger (1995) "The Mission and Historical Missions: Film and the Writing of History." The Americas, Vol. 51, No. 3, pp. 393-415.
  2. ^ Saeger, ibid.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Preceded by
When Father Was Away on Business		 Palme d'Or
1986		 Succeeded by
Under the Sun of Satan
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