Review of Black Robe (1991) by Michael Y — 24 Apr 2011

A complicated little piece about Canada's cultivation history, Black Robe isn't your happy movie where everyone gets along in the end. This is the times as they were, and that's just fine.

A Jesuit on a mission to bring Christianity to the Huron tribe of Canada is going to need a little help from the Algonquins to cross the vast wilderness. Tension rises within the Algonquins as the judge the Jesuit's religion, but he is determined in his belief that through Christ he can save them from their "savage ways", even when horrors come for them. It takes a bit of Canadian history knowledge and interest to like this movie, but what you see in Black Robe is a heavy racial drama about the pride or 2 races, and whether a priest truely wants to save a race he thinks strange and sinful. This is a bold, depressing and unforgiving film about cultural differences that doesn't tie everything up in a bow, (especially if you know your history) but it makes for an incredibly thoughtful and well written history piece movie.

It may be a small movie, but a fine looking one at least. This movie mostly takes place right in the wilderness, so there's a lot of beauty in the scenery, but in a very dreary and dark sort of way, heavy shadows and a snowy setting make this movie even more depressing. But the real beauty comes from the creative and dark cinematography that sets an entirely different mood than what you would expect. Nice variation in costumes and makeup to destinguish different tribes, and great set designs that look totally regal. And there's a nice smooth music score that builds up a lot of the movie's emotion.

This is like Canada's answer to The Mission, but Black Robe is a more bleaker and depressing side of European/Christian cultivation. But what Black Robe presents is a great character study of prejudice and a journey that might be strange to others, but doesn't need to be explained because it's what the main character believes in, which will raise questions by the time you watch it all till the end.