The Mission (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Rodrigo Mendoza (ROBERT DE NIRO) was a violent soldier-for-hire in 1750s South America. Now he is a man of peace serving the Rain Forest Indians he once enslaved. But armies of Spain and Portugal threaten the lifestyle and safety of the native peoples. Now Rodrigo may have to pick up his sword and musket once again. From the producer of Chariots of Fire and the director of The Killing Fields comes a powerful epic co-starring JEREMY IRONS and graced with dazzling Academy Award-winning cinematography, set to a memorable music score and scripted by the Oscar-winning screenwriter of A Man for All Seasons and Doctor Zhivago.
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 (Two-Disc Special Edition) Accessories
 The Mission: Original Soundtrack From The Motion Picture
A Man for All Seasons (Special Edition)
Gandhi (Widescreen Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
Chariots of Fire (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Babette's Feast
Amadeus
Romero (IMPORT)
Becket
Doctor Zhivago (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Lawrence of Arabia (Single Disc Edition)
The Mission (Two-Disc Special Edition) Reviews
Beautiful movie. The message is powerful and the music is haunting. A missionary and a slave trader's lives become intertwined. The Mission gives the viewer a look into the exploitation of South America by Europeans.
If we really focus on this movie as a human rights oriented, we could see how the Indians were being treated by the Europeans. I see this movie as a way to create awareness about the violation of human rights, to create consciousness. In my opinion this movie tries to influence of emotions and feelings to make us think about the current situations that our world is in terms of human rights, because we are the only ones who can change the present and provide a better future by looking at the past. So they could do as they wished with them. Veo esta película como una manera de informar sobre la violación de los derechos humanos, para crear concientización. Si nos centramos realmente podemos ver que esta se orienta mucho en mostrar los derechos humanos, podemos ver cómo a los europeos trataban a los indios. Honestly for anyone who likes a good movie, this is the one.
Miré la misión en una clase que estoy tomando actualmente sobre la literatura de los derechos humanos en América latina. Los capturaban, los esclavizan, los explotan, y los indios no podían defenderse; para los europeos ellos eran como animales, ellos no tenían ninguna voz, no eran nada. Honesto para cualquier persona que tenga gusto de una buena película, ésta es esa película. Para que nos demos cuenta que somos los únicos que podemos cambiar la injusticia en nuestra sociedad.
They would capture, slave them, exploit them, and the Indians have no saying in the matter; for the Europeans they were like animals, they have no voice, they were nothing. Ésta es una película que trasciende los años y su idea se puede aplicar a nuestro tiempo. Podían hacer con ellos los que les daba la gana. En mi opinión esta película intenta influenciar nuestras emociones y sentimientos para hacernos pensar en las situaciones actuales de nuestro mundo en términos de los derechos humanos, porque somos los únicos que podemos cambiar el presente y proveer un futuro mejor mirando el pasado. Por otro lado estaban los jesuitas que los miraban como seres humanos que necesitaban de dirección, comprensión, los veían como alguien que necesitaba ser convertido al cristianismo, intentando salvarlos.
I watched The Mission in a class that I'm currently taking about the Literature of Human Rights in Latin America. La misión es sobre el tiempo de la colonia en Suramérica y muestra el tratamiento de indígenas y de los derechos humanos. This is a movie that transcends the years and its idea can be applied to our time. To make us realize that we are the only ones who can change the injustice in our society. On the other hand there were the Jesuits who saw them as humans who needed guidance, understanding, someone who needed to be converted into Christianity, trying to save them. The Mission is about the colonial time in South America and shows the treatment of indigenous people and human rights.
The music is thrilling, gentle, and sad. This movie is probably my all time favorite. Most moving performances. I have the sound track also, it is most enjoyable. It is a lesson in life. BRAVO. I have watched it over and over again.
So much has been written about The Mission and it has received so many plaudits, that it is redundant to re-list them here. The bonus documentary about the challenges and advantages of using actual natives to play the Guarani is worth watching as well. Suffice it to say that this film remains hugely worth watching on every significant level: photography, musical score, acting, etc. One can only envy those who get to watch it for the first time.
The underlying motives of the settlers and the priests are in conflict and Rodrigo, Robert DeNiro's character, is a man who switched between the two factions. After a lot of talk and frontier diplomacy, conflict ensues and the film ends with a sense that the next generation will have to regroup further into the jungle. This is a movie that makes many people mad at "civilization".
It left the impression that the incredible transformation from "savage" to converted and cultured took place in less than a year's time. I was overwelmed by the magnitude of the cinematography. The time was around 1750 during which Spanish and Portugese settlements were expanding and civilizing. I was interested in seeing "The Mission" when it first came out. The falls that we revisit often in the film were worth the price of admission. The film tells of an historic event in which Jesuit priests created some missions in an area around Brazil's southeastern border. It may be that there isn't more than one who fits that title.
It seems to have aged well but, then, most historical epics usually do. It really is hard to figure out who are the good guys and, I believe, that was intential. Maybe that's too many. The dialogue between the priests and the Cardinal was interesting at times and predictible at other times. I was bothered by the director's failure to consider that the children that had significant roles in this film did not age.
The same thing always happens in these circumstances. Much of "The Mission" was quite compelling. The Jesuits expand their missionary work to a remote area as we start following the story. I didn't realize that it would take over 20 years before I finally was able to take it in.
We get the general idea as to what will happen.
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