Review of The Mission (1986) by Richard T — 27 Jun 2009

I commented else where that at the start of the film I was reminded of Conrad's Heart of Darkness and in a way I suppose the comparison is accurate, though certainly not in regard to content as much as to the way I received both cultural entities. My grasp of history is not immense, and what I do know, which I reckon is a fair amount, is mostly contained to the history of the United States, so while I knew of the backdrop to this film I did not know many of the details or what I was about to watch. The film is a mixed bag for me, visually stunning throughout with a few beautiful sequences, but also possessing a good number of noticeable lulls in the narrative and the plot. As a period piece it probably succeeds incredibly well, and Di Niro surprised me, turning in a wonderful performance that really helped to keep things moving along, but as a cohesive whole I was left lacking most sorts of engagement and really only able to appreciate the technical aspects of the film. The score is really great, the cinematography is wonderful, and the direction is pretty solid all around, but the story is just not incredibly interesting until the third act really begins to pick up. There are flashes here and there, and when they start talking church and politics it mostly works splendidly, but I just felt that all the time spent at the Mission was too up and down, some scenes were wonderful while others were drawn out and dull, to make the amount of time spent there worthwhile. The relationship between the priests and the locals is believable though and I can see how some people can really buy into a film like this, but it just did not do too much for me. Solid drama with some interesting history, but ultimately too up and down to really sustain its run time.

C/C+ or 3.232834071238571230857108.