Throwback Movie Night: The Mission

This week's Throwback Movie Night is "The Mission". It was done in 1986 and tells the story of a Jesuit mission in the 1750s in the jungles above the Iguazu Falls in South America.


 


 There was a tribe called the Guarani who lived in the jungle that the Jesuits were trying to convert to Christianity. The Guarani are not particularly welcoming and tie the first priest to a cross and send him over the waterfall. This brings Father Gabriel, played by Jeremy Irons, to the Guarani's doorstep. Gabriel has an oboe that he plays beautifully and the Guarani allow him to join them and live among them.

Jesuit missions were protected under Spanish law, but the Portuguese and the Spanish are squabbling about land rights in this part of the world at the time. The Jesuit order is also under scrutiny by the Church, who see it as extreme in some ways. While the missions are safe under Spanish rule, the Portuguese allow slave trading and have created a business in South America. Robert DeNiro plays a mercenary and slave trader who decides to become a Jesuit and live at the Mission above the falls. In the end, he tries to lead the Guarani resistance to the Spanish and Portuguese soldiers when they come to dismantle the mission and capture the tribesman for slaves.

Music-wise, this movie is top of the list. The music was composed by Ennio Morricone, and he integrated the native language of the South American Guarani into the music, at one point, having an entire chorus sing "Ave Maria" in their native tongue. When it comes to the music, I'm not sure there's a more beautiful sound than Gabriel's Oboe. The movie is intense and there is a lot of violence, but there is nothing intense about the music. It is all very smooth and outstandingly beautiful.