Review of The Mission (1986) by Peter C — 30 Oct 2012

Having just watched Joffe's The Mission, I am now faced with the task of rating it and, like the papal envoy in the film, I am torn between what I must do. On the one hand The Mission is a gorgeous spectacle that towers like a giant redwood over the Hollywood landscape. A staggering epic with Lean-like pretensions, it includes dazzling shots of thunderous waterfalls and dense, wet jungle. This combined with Enrico Morricone's heartbreakingly beautiful score certainly warrants this film getting at least 4 stars.

On the other hand, closer inspection reveals that this redwood is rotten to the core. The plot is hopelessly fractured and quickly becomes weighted down by its own religious ethos. The acting is abysmal and everywhere it begs for the spark of personality that the leading actors could have given it. Unlike Lean, Joffe seems incapable of pulling both elements together to make a captivating story. Instead we are left with a monolith of a film that can only stagger along due to its own inertia.

Perhaps I spoke in haste. Jeremy Irons was born to play the priest and he does a halfway descent job as Father Gabriel, the christ-like jesuit who founds the mission of San Carlos in the remote jungle of South America and then tries to defend his native converts from the encroaching Spanish and Portuguese. Robert de Niro, however, is atrocious as the slaver Rodrigo Mendoza (Brooklyn accent and all). He joins the jesuits after killing his brother in a jealous fit of rage and as penance, hails a heavy suit of armor up a waterfall all the way to the mission where he is supposedly redeemed by the forgiveness of the natives.

This redemption is botched (along with everything else) by a horribly incoherent finale. Mendoza turns his bloodlust against the Portuguese, who are rapidly closing in, and incites the tribe to resist violently. Father Gabriel argues that their salvation can only come through faith. In the end both our protagonists fail as they and the entire tribe are butchered in a confused sequence of shots of fire, smoke and dead bodies. Imperialism triumphs again, hardly I think what the film was trying to get across.

Verdict: The Mission, both slick and sloppy, is presented beautifully gift-wrapped but is without a point and is incapable of making us care.