Lent Reviews: The Mission (1986) (Week 4 Review 1 of 2)

     The Mission was released on October 31st, 1986. Directed by Roland Joffé and written by Robert Bolt (A Man for All Seasons, Lawrence of Arabia) it is loosely based on events surrounding the Treaty of Madrid between Spain and Portugal in 1750.

     The film is essentially, a condensed hodge podge of various related historical events. As a result of the Treaty of Madrid where Spanish Jesuit Missionaries were forced to abandon their missions in Paraguay, where they served the Guaraní people and protected them from enslavement. The harsh conditions of the new transferred territory lead to the Guaraní War of 1754–1756. This was also a factor in the suppression of the Jesuit Order five years later. The film shows Cardinal Altamirano (Ray McAnally), an emissary from the pope, traveling to Paraguay to asses the missions there and decide if they should be allowed to remain. In real life, this involved large mission territories serving seven different Native tribes, of which the Guaraní were only one. In addition, the real Altamirano was a Jesuit priest sent by the Superior of the order, not a Cardinal sent by the pope. The Guaraní's uprising in the film is a brief, small scale affair involving maybe a few hundred men and lasting a few hours but the real Guaraní War was a protracted conflict which lasted three years and involved thousands of men.

     The film is split up into three distinct acts. The first act chronicles the re-establishment of a mission by Father Gabriel (Jeremy Iron) who contends with Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert De Niro) a Spanish mercenary and slaver who hunts the Guaraní and sells them to Spanish and Portuguese plantation owners. When Rodrigo kills Felipe in a fit of jealous rage he falls into a drunken state of depression but Father Gabriel challenges him to come with him to the Mission as a penance. Mendoza accepts and, through his experience, finds redemption and eventually even becomes a Jesuit himself.

     The second act deals with Cardinal Altamirano who, under pressure from both the Spanish and Portuguese governments, is forced to choose between two evils: he can force the missions to disband, which would inevitably lead to the enslavement of the Guarani or he rule in favor of the missions, which would put the future of the entire Jesuit Order in jeopardy and potentially even lead to the fracture of the Church in Europe. While the latter choice could potentially lead to evil, the former is intrinsically wrong, as it would mean spiritually abandoning the newly converted natives. Nevertheless, the Cardinals decision, essentially a forgone conclusion, is to shut down the mission.

     The third act deals with the expulsion of the missions. The Jesuits all decide to disobey the Cardinal and remain with the Guarani, who refuse to leave the mission, but in the face of an impending attack by Spanish and Portuguese forces tasked with enforcing the treaty of Madrid the missionaries become divided. Father Gabriel wants to continue to serve the Guarani peacefully, as a priest, but Rodrigo and the other fathers decide to train them to fight. In the end, they are all massacred.

     The script, with it's overarching voice-over presented in the form of a letter from Altamirano to the Pope, seems to present the Cardinal as the film's central protagonist and is focused more on the sociopolitical aspects of the story which are very cynical and, as I alluded, more anti-clerical then the actual story would merit. The direction on the other hand, the visual storytelling, is more focused on the personal journey of faith of Father Gabriel and Mendoza. Indeed, while the political maneuvering is presented with dry detachment for the most part, the film's most powerful moments are all focused on those two characters: the stunning opening sequence, where we see a Jesuit missionary, tied to a crucifix, martyred at the hands of the Guarani; Father Gabriel making his first contact with the natives armed only with his oboe, which he uses to communicate what he as yet can't in their language; Mendoza, in his remorse and stubborn pride, scaling the cliffs leading to the mission dragging behind him a net filled with his weapons and armor, literally and figuratively weighed down by the burden of his past sins.

     From the beginning of the film Rodrigo and Gabriel are placed in opposition. When the mercenary encounters the priest while hunting for slaves, Gabriel tells him "We'll make Christians of these people." To which Rodrigo quips, "If you have the time." When Gabriel comes to Mendoza with his proposal to accompany him to the mission he presents it as a kind of challenge to his courage, "Do you have the courage to choose your penance? Do you dare do that?" This opposition returns later in the film, when Rodrigo insults one of the Spanish landowners with whom he used to do businesses and Cardinal Altamirano and Father Gabriel, in the interest of diplomacy, demand that he publicly apologize. In both of these cases, Rodrigo eventually comes around to Gabriel's way of thinking. They clash once again at the end of the film, this time irreconcilably, over whether or not to take up arms in defense of the Guarani. Gabriel, rightly, thinks this is incompatible with their vows as a priest but Rodrigo won't listen. One dies in defeat, the other suffers martyrdom alongside his flock, as he leads them in a Eucharistic procession. The film offers no insight as to which one made the right choice but for a discerning Catholic it should be clear.

     But that still leaves the question: is this a story about institutional failure and racial oppression or about personal faith and staying true to one's vocation? I'm not saying it can't be about both but in this film these two themes often seem to work against one another rather then in concert. If it is a film about the oppression of native peoples, would this not implicate Father Gabriel, who encourages pacifism in the face of the Spanish and Portuguese? Part of the problem is The Mission's simplified portrayal of the actual history but also at issue is a seeming lack of understanding about the Church's position of the issues at hand. For instance, Gabriel opposes the Guarani's rebellion, seemingly on purely pacifist grounds. But the Church has never taught that all war is wrong. Certainly, Gabriel could oppose the rebellion as not conforming to the Church's teaching on just war as they have is no serious prospects of success, but Bolt was either not interested in exploring this or was simply unaware of the Church's teaching. In any case his script works to obscure, rather then clarify, the issue.
 

      Ennio Morricone's score for The Mission contains some of the most hauntingly beautiful music ever written for any film. Though not as tightly constructed or thematically complex as some of Morricone's other scores it was fully deserving of it's Oscar nomination. The film was nominated in six other categories, but only won one, for Chris Menges' striking cinematography. The performances are all solid, with De Niro and Irons both giving a real tour-de-force the lead roles.

     The Mission is filled with haunting imagery, brilliant writing and visual storytelling, wonderful performances and some of the best music ever written for a motion picture, but it never quite transcends the sum of its parts as good as these are.

Score: 8/10