 |
 The Mission (Special Edition, 2 DVDs)
Description: Genre: Drama / Theatrical Release: 1986 / Director: Roland Joffé / Actors: Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons ... / DVD ... more  The Mission (Special Edition, 2 DVDs) ... released 02 June, 2003 at Warner Home Video / Features of the DVD: Box set, PAL, Special Edition / 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 KeoghNewest Review: ... The Portuguese. The brutal subjugation of the local population is just one of the difficulties the missionaries have to ... more ... face.
In the end neither approach works and the film ends in a confusing battle between Indians, Missionaries and soldiers. It's a bit of a let down after sitting through all that. If anyone asked me how I thought it ended I'd have to say that I wasn't sure.
This is a very beautifully made film with amazing views of the South American jungle, rivers and waterfalls. The soundtrack is very haunting as it weaves an interesting mesh of native Indian panpipes and church choir music. It was written by Ennio Morricone, an...more |
||
The Mission (Special Edition, 2 DVDs): Fabulous Music But Weak Plot (345 words)
by janharper - written on 22.03.08 (Very useful, 42 readings)
Rating:
The Mission is set in Paraguay in the eighteenth century. It is the story of the establishment of a Jesuit Mission among the local Guarani Indians and we see it through the eyes of two men. One is basically a man of the sword and the other a man of the cloth. Jeremy Irons and Robert de Niro play missionaries who are trying to work with the local people under constant threat from the new rulers, The Portuguese. The brutal subjugation of the local population is just one of the difficulties the missionaries have to face. In the end neither approach works and the film ends in a confusing battle between Indians, Missionaries and soldiers. It's a bit of a ...
On a Mission (154 words)
by Rogerbyname - written on 21.06.07 (Somewhat useful, 42 readings)
Rating:
A truly beautiful film (directed by Roland Joffe)accompanied by an equally enchanting soundtrack (written by Ennio Morricone). The plot covers the establishment of a Jesuit mission amongst a local native Indian tribe, the Guaranis, in Paraguay in the 18th century. Jeremy Irons stars alongside Robert de Niro as the missionaries meeting the challenges of working with the local peoples, personal demons and the constant threat from the new colonial masters of the region, the Portuguese. The plot is a masterly vehicle for both leading characters to explore their roles and has a lot to say about current imperialism. Other stars dot the cast list - Aidan Quinn, Ray McAnally, ...
