Mission

My favorite movie, ever. It works on so many levels: as a story about the dissolution of the Jesuit order in portuguese South America (and the subsequent enslavement of the natives), as an account of one man's ill-fated but necessary conversion, as a series of complex ideological battles, and, lastly, as a tale of innocence, of Eden. All this, in addition to spectacular performances, brilliant direction, a fabulous script and one of the most breathtaking soundtracks ever recorded. It simply gets better with each successive viewing.

I would have to say that this movie is one of the most "real" and beautiful movies that I have ever seen!! One's own life is drawn upon by watching this film.... It is hard to watch all of this movie without wanting to break down and cry... being as young as I am, I find it difficult to understand some of the things in life that happen, and why so many people and groups are treated without respect and dignity. This film helped me to understand that all god's creatures are unique and special and are EQUAL!!! The music is so strong it makes the movie so much better to watch. I think this movie would be NOTHING without the powerful music that is played throughout it... I am glad that I had the opportunity to see this film in a high level Spanish class because it taught me, about me!! What a wonderful movie!!

This movie changed my life. One day I would like to thank Jeremy Irons!

After seeing his portrayal of Father Gabriel, I decided that I wanted to be like him. I wanted to have his faith, to be capable of loving like he did in the movie.

This film made me become a missionary. I went on to work, as missionary, in Italy, Mexico, Guatemala, Morocco, Malawi, and my home country Portugal.

I don't want to tell the things I did, but I just want to recognize, that a good film can change a life and change so many others.

Great Film. Thank you Jeremy Irons, I still want to be as Father Gabriel, after all this years.

THE MISSION is a history drama about the expulsion of the Jesuits' missions in South America in the middle of the XVIII century. By what I've learned the plot's background is accurate to history and all we see in this movie truly happened in real life, unfortunately! The search for slavery work was continuous at the time by Portuguese colonists and the Spanish in spite of slavery not being directly allowed by their crown they also used the indigenous slaves. The Spaniards which had been creating Indian reductions since the middle of the XVI century, as a form to convert and control those indigenous people, were followed by the Portuguese, and both built Jesuit reductions in their territories. But after the 1750 treatment the Jesuits would be expulsed because they refused to leave their missions where their lived together with the indians, in peace. And the indians themselves they didn't want to abandon the reductions too because they knew that in the main jungle they would be an easy target to slave traders (known as "bandeirantes" in Portuguese colony).

So it's just the main plot's topic of this movie which then focus on the personal story of father Gabriel (played by Jeremy Irons), a Jesuit missionary, and Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert de Niro) a former slave trader which was converted to the Christian faith (and to the Jesuits) after kill his brother (because of a woman). The movie has good moments, especially in the last hour, and it describes very well the feeling of injustice and desperation those native people felt by the furious anger of the greedy imperialist armies! There're a few scenes, which focus the sad and empty native children' eyes, that worth more than a thousand words!

I enjoyed this movie and the plot's main topic which portrays a sad period of our history (unfortunately empires were always built under massacres and the subjugation of other people, and I know Portuguese empire was no exception!).

While at college I was given the assignment of producing a 30 minute talk on the 'Guarana Republic' which is off course the subject matter of this movie. Hailing from the Protestant part of Europe I had never even heard about this aspect of Jesuit missionary work before, but as I researched the matter I became fascinated. So when I heard that a movie had been made about this topic I went to see it as soon as possible. Knowing how the film industry tended to treat historical events I was somewhat suspicious, but I was pleasantly surprised. This movie instantly became one of my all time favourites. I think the subject matter is handled sensitively and sensibly and the cinematography is stunning. What also impressed me was the clever way in which this story, which in reality spanned several generations, was compressed into a period of about ten years without becoming unbelievable. Even in a two hour movie there is a limit on what one can touch on, but I think that a good balance between dialogue, adventure, action, and character development, was struck. Even so if the movie would have lasted another hour I would still have been happy (perhaps even happier).