Roland Joffé (The Killing Fields) directs this fuzzy effort at a David Lean-like epic without David Lean's sense of emotional proportion. Lean's most important screenwriting collaborator, Robert Bolt, in fact wrote The Mission, which concerns a Jesuit missionary (Jeremy Irons) who establishes a church in the hostile jungles of Brazil and then finds his work threatened by greed and political forces among his superiors. Robert De Niro is briefly effective as a callous soldier who kills his own brother and then turns to Irons's character to oversee his penance and conversion to the clergy. The narrative and dramatic forces at work in this movie should be more stirring and powerful than they are--the problem being that Joffé is too removed from them to allow us in. --Tom Keogh
The Mission is director Roland Joffé's fuzzy effort at an epic in David Lean style without David Lean's sense of emotional proportion. In fact, Lean's most important screenwriting collaborator, Robert Bolt, wrote The Mission, which concerns a Jesuit missionary (Jeremy Irons) who establishes a church in the hostile jungles of Brazil and then finds his work threatened by greed and political forces among his superiors.
Robert De Niro is briefly effective as a callous soldier who kills his own brother and then turns to Irons's character to oversee his penance and conversion to the clergy. The narrative and dramatic forces at work in this movie should be more stirring and powerful than they are, the problem being that Joffé is too removed from them to allow us in. By way of compensation, Ennio Morricone contributes one of his most evocative and admired music scores. --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
Emotional This 1986 award winning masterpiece is one of the few movies that demostrates what God/Nature is asking from each of us. To love one another. Still today politics is so far more important..so they think it is. This movie is touching, loving, and shows how much one person can help so many people in terms of the constant battle between faith and greed. The ending of this movie will rip your heart out.
Stunning This is a true story and it is a very sad one in the history of the west and of the church.
Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons, Liam Neeson and many more take us through the history of slavers in South America. Irons, who plays a Spanish Jesuit Priest, goes into the wilderness to build a mission, to convert the Indians. DeNiro plays a slaver who eventually joins Irons' mission and serves the native peoples. The main question in this film is that of ownership, and the right to make slaves. The mission... more info
what happens if "God changes his mind" Winner of the Palme D'or in 1986 at Cannes, "The Mission" is a feast to the eyes, as well as to the souls. Shot in exotic and spectacular backdrops of Colombia and Brazil, the film explores the power struggles and duality of Spanish and Portuguese presence in South America, depicts the violent clash of cultures, and the subjugation and eventual genocide of a tribe of Paraguayan indians known as the Guarani in the 1750s. Seemingly "The Mission" appears to be a poignant movie about the harsh brutality of... more info
Powerful and emotional A true story and a powerful on at that.
Read the other reviews for plot synopsis, I can't say anything others haven't already. The screenply is magnificent, the direction perfect, the cinematography second to none, the acting the best ever with truly powerful performances from Deniro and Irons while the music by Morricone is truly haunting (get the soundtrack as well).
This is a must have for any film collector and one I shall return to again and again. I cannot recommend this film more highly.
