The Mission (film)

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For the Hong Kong action film, see The Mission (1999 film).
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
Editing by Jim Clark
Distributed by Warner Brothers
Release date(s) Flag of Spain 29 September 1986
Flag of the United States 31 October 1986
Running time 126 min.
Country Flag of the United Kingdom
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. It won the Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. In April 2007, it was elected number one on the Church Times Top 50 Religious Films list.[1] The music, scored by Italian composer Ennio Morricone, was listed at #23 on AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores.

Contents

[edit] 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.

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), Gabriel by nonviolent means and Mendoza by means of his military training. The mission, which was once under Spanish protection, has been handed over to the Portuguese while the Vatican (represented by Papal emissary Altamirano) 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. Father Gabriel is presiding over Benediction with the Guaraní women and children when he and several of the Guaranís are shot down, while Father Fielding (Liam Neeson), who helps lead an attack on the enemy's boats, is shot dead. Mendoza dies after abandoning an opportunity to spring a trap on the attackers to save Guaraní children on a bridge. This presumably provides the redemption he had been searching for.

Cabeza and Hontar, the Spanish and Portuguese authorities behind the attack, try to convince the Cardinal that the massacre was justified; the Cardinal feels otherwise. After cutting to a scene of surviving Guaraní children salvaging supplies from the burned mission and a broken violin from the river sailing away on a canoe, the film ends with the Cardinal simply staring determinedly at the camera.

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 by Jesuit Superior General Ignacio Visconti 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 re-creation 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 as in boats on rivers, in which the Jesuit-organized, firearm-equipped Guarani forces stopped the Paulista raiders.[2]

[edit] Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

BAFTA Film Awards

Cannes Film Festival

  • Palme d'Or – Roland Joffé (won)
  • Technical Grand Prize – Roland Joffé (won)

Golden Globe Awards

[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

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