The Mission (1986)

Waste of time

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Possibly the greatest musical score ever written for a film. The only deduction from the maximum 10, is that whilst believable, the great actor Ray MacAnally, is just not sufficiently wicked! In all a rather sobering commentary on the entire colonial era, and the great destruction it wrought on communities in South America and Africa.

I know why some critics dislike this movie, it's because Robert de Niro is not the centre of attentions for a change. It's not really about him, it's about indians in the Amazon and it's about a piece of history Americans aren't familiar with (they probably don't even know who the Jesuits is, never mind Portugal or Marquis de Pombal). I absolutely loved it, I think Jeremy Irons was great in it, it was visually and melodically (Ennio Morricone) mesmerising, it made me think about the world being a rubbish place, about evil and power. The only thing I would like to say against it is that it portrays the Jesuits as being all about love and poverty. That is not true. One of the reasons why Marquis de Pombal and the King of Portugal wanted to end the Jesuit order was because they were filthy rich, they owned lands, they had a lot of power in those days. It wasn't just about the slave market, there were political reasons behind. Anyway, I don't know why I never watched this movie on TV, why I only found out about it through Ennio's soundtrack, because it's essentially amazing.

Roland Joffe's stately film, 'The Mission', tells the story of indigenous Americans first embraced, then abandoned, by a Catholic Church more interested in power than in good. But the film has failings: there are multiple lead protagonists (including Robert de Nero whose role seems inadequate for his star billing), denying us a consistent perspective; the pace is slow; and the battle scenes at the end more confused than dramatic. I also found Enrico Morricone's story invasive and partly unnecessary. In addition, the plot can be summarised as bad stuff expected, bad stuff happens: it's a story extraordinarily devoid of twists. The scope is broad, but for such a simple tragedy, a smaller movie might have serviced better.

The Mission has been recommended to me through a friend of mine. This film is based on true events about the Spanish and Portuguese colonialism in South America in the 18th century. It shows in easy way the brutal combat against the Indians. There are a few themes that gave me to think even later. For example the position of the church and the hungry idiots that wanted enlarge their power in these poor countries against every price. An historical event that in reality continues nowadays on our planet. I take with me one of the sentence heard in this movie: "The world is so". "No, it is the way we did the world!".....Robert De Niro delivered no doubt one of his best performances. Don't expect mega action show. In fact the fight scenes are executed poorly. The cinematography is also not at the top. Don't forget, it has been turned in the midst eighties.The music of Ennio Morricone was well adapted. 7/10. If you like to discover more of that time don't miss "1492: Conquest of Paradise" with Gérard Depardieu.