The most divine thing about 1986’s The Mission is Ennio Morricone’s incredible musical score: to my mind, the greatest of all time. But it’s actually also a beautifully told and imagined story about Jesuit missionaries in South America who initially set out to convert the members of a specific jungle tribe to their brand of Christianity, but are interrupted by European colonialists looking to usurp the land as their own.
This movie is interesting in its depiction of religious attitudes because of the varying forms of Christian faith portrayed by the characters. You have one played by Jeremy Irons who is a hardline pacificist, following the Christ-like example of turning the other cheek as enemy forces advance. Then there’s the converted mercenary played by Robert De Niro, who treats his conversion as if it’s a kind of internal war, and who picks up his sword to fight alongside the Guaraini people against the Spanish and Portuguese invaders. The conflict here is between the ideals of one’s faith and the practicalities of the world in which one has to live and interact with, and finding the right way to balance the two and still be effective is complex, perhaps impossible.
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