The Mission
Directed by Roland Joffe
Screenplay, Robert Bolt
Cinematography, Chris Menges
Music, Ennio Morricone
Actors:
Rodrigo Mendoza—Robert DeNiro Altamirano—Ray McAnally Don Cabeza—Chuck Low
Father Gabriel—Jeremy Irons Fr. John Fielding—Liam Neeson
The Guarani Indians—The Waunana people
Film Review
By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

The MissionDirected by Roland JoffeWarner Home Video 01/86 DVD/VHS Feature FilmPG

This is a powerful, compelling, and spiritually stirring film directed by Roland Joffe (The Killing Fields) and written by Robert Bolt (A Man for All Seasons). Filmed entirely on location in Colombia, South America, The Mission won the Golden Palm (Best Film) Award at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival.

In 1750 in the rain forest of central South America, Guarani Indians tie a Jesuit priest to a tree, push this crucifix into the river rapids, and watch it plunge over the majestic Iguazu waterfalls. Soon Father Gabriel (Jeremy Irons), another Jesuit, arrives to carry on the work of the martyred priest. After scaling the cliffs beside the falls, he takes out an oboe and begins to play. Indians emerge from the dense jungle and surround him. Through the music, however, they recognize him as a man of peace and take him into their midst.

Meanwhile, in the town of Asuncion below the falls, European settlers have built a plantation economy on slaves supplied by mercenaries like Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert De Niro). During a raid for Indians above the falls, Mendoza encounters Gabriel and learns that the Jesuits are building a mission there.Months later, Mendoza and Gabriel meet again. In a fit of jealous anger over losing his mistress, Mendoza has killed his brother, and he has sunk into a deep depression. Gabriel challenges him to have the courage to live and to choose a penance for his crime. When the priest, Fielding (Liam Neeson), and other Jesuits next climb the cliffs by Iguazu Falls, Mendoza is with them, dragging behind him a sack filled with his armor and sword. At the mission, the Guarani people, whom he had once persecuted, welcome him into their community.

Eventually, Mendoza takes vows to become a member of the Jesuit order.
The work of the mission, however, is threatened by political developments. The Spanish and Portuguese crowns have signed a treaty that transfers the territory where the missions are located from Spanish to Portuguese jurisdiction. Altamirano (Ray McAnally), an emissary from the Pope in Rome, arrives to decide whether the missions will remain under the protection of the Church.
At a public hearing, Altamirano listens as Gabriel asserts that the Guarani Indians are naturally spiritual people. Without the missions, they will have no protection from slavery, which is legal in Portuguese territory. The colonists, including Don Cabeza (Chuck Low), representing Spanish interests, and Hontar (Ronald Pickup), representing the Portuguese, protest that the Church must submit to political realities.

Altamirano postpones his decision until he can visit the Jesuit settlements. At the large mission of San Miguel, he is impressed by the economic prosperity and the equal distribution of the wealth to all members of the community. In the workshops and the large adobe church, he marvels at the craftsmanship of the artisans and the musical genius evident in the Indians' orchestras and choirs. But he also recognizes that the missions pose an economic threat to the European plantations. Traveling to Gabriel's remote mission of San Carlos, Altamirano is deeply moved by the simple lifestyle and remarkable faith of the Guarani.

Nevertheless, Altamirano tells the Indians that they must leave San Carlos. He orders the priests to accept the transfer of the mission territories. In private, he explains to Gabriel that the future of the Jesuit order in Europe depends upon their not resisting the political authorities in South America.

The Guarani, unmoved by political arguments and unable to understand what Altamirano says is the will of God, decide to defend their home. Mendoza, encouraged by an Indian boy (Bercelio Moya) who has become his closest friend, renounces his vow of obedience as a Jesuit and chooses to fight alongside them.

Gabriel will not abandon his congregation but cannot take up arms. As European troops close in on the mission, he assembles the women and children as a choir in front of the church. When their singing does not stop the attack, Gabriel leads a procession into a hail of bullets armed only with the sacraments and the cross.

The Mission depicts the challenge of conscience that confronts us all in a world convulsed by power, greed, and violence. Its power lies in the way it convinces us that the fierce conflict-ridden world we see on the screen is similar to the one in which we live today. At the same time, The Mission is a deeply moving film that reminds us of the vitality of love, the miracle of grace, and the transforming power of acts of conscience.

Questions:
1.Altamirano states when he visits the missions that he felt that the Guarani Indians would have been happier if no one had crossed the Atlantic to intrude into their lifestyle at all. What do you think?

2. What is a mercenary? (dictionary definition: a professional soldier hired to serve in a foreign army; any hireling [a person who works only for pay, especially in a menial or boring job, with little or no concern for the value of the work])
Who are the mercenaries in this film? Consider the Indians in “whiteface” who help the Portuguese attack San Carlos at the end of the movie. Do you think that Altamirano is a mercenary?

3. Rodrigo takes offense when he thinks that one of the citizens of the town laughs at him. How does his sensitivity to being laughed at affect him in this scene and throughout the rest of the narrative?

4. Consider the scene in which Rodrigo and Father Gabriel double-dare one another. Fr. Gabriel tells Rodrigo that he is a mercenary, a slave trader, and that he killed his brother. He also calls him a coward because he is running away from life. Rodrigo’s reply is that there is no life for him. Fr. Gabriel challenges Rodrigo to choose his penance; Rodrigo dares him to see the penance fail.
Why do you think that Rodrigo’s penance worked?

5. Why can’t Rodrigo kill the boar?

6. Describe Rodrigo’s relationship with the Indian boy and how it affects his choices in this narrative.

7. What do the Jesuit vows represent in this movie? What are vows of obedience? How is it that Fr. Gabriel maintains his vows and Rodrigo and the other priests renounce theirs?

8. What is the role of music in this film? What does it represent?

9. Why does Altamirano decide to close the missions? Do you think that he was justified?

10.Why do the Indians not want to leave the Mission at San Carlos?

11. We see two missions destroyed: San Miguel, which is prosperous, with beautiful architecture, and San Carlos, an Edenic setting. Both missions respond differently to the attacks of the Portuguese. Compare and discuss these two responses. How do these responses reflect upon the Europeans’ code of ethics?

12. Father Gabriel states that “If might is right, love has no place in this world.” Does he make the right choice, to refuse to fight? What do you think about Rodrigo’s choice to fight (also the other priests)? Who has made the greater sacrifice?

13. How does Altamirano judge his own actions at the end? Do you agree that the ends sometimes justify the means? What is a just war? What would you want to do if a foreign enemy attacked your native soil?

14. Discuss the role of conversions in this narrative. Is Rodrigo truly converted to a life of non-violence and love? Are the Indians converted? Is Altamirano changed in the course of the narrative? What new perspectives has the film given to you as a viewer?

15. Explore the following topics: the fact that the Indians killed their children if they had more than two. The practice of trafficking in human beings. The fact that the Mission is at the top of the waterfalls. The role of the Church in political matters. The just war, the justification of using violence.

16. Consider and evaluate the many conversion stories in this film.

17. What is the role of slavery, colonization, and the appropriation of other human beings for self or national aggrandizement? How do powerful countries rationalize subordinating other nations both then and today?

18. Consider the symbolic setting of the waterfall missions—a high place, a mountain, the abode of the gods.

19. What is the distinction between God’s work and the Church’s work?