LIBERTY UNIVERSITY

“THE MISSION” - A REVIEW

A PAPER SUBMITTED TO DR. DANIEL SHEARD

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR

THE COURSE CHHI 657

LIBERTY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

BY

ELKE SPELIOPOULOS

DOWNINGTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA

SUNDAY, APRIL 8, 2012

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1

THE STORY...................................................................................................................................2

THEMES OF THE MOVIE............................................................................................................4

MISSIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF COLONIAL EXPANSION..................................................5

MISSIONARY STRATEGY DEPICTED IN THE FILM..............................................................5

OTHER ASPECTS OF MISSION HISTORY................................................................................6

CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6

BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................................7

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1

INTRODUCTION

The 1986 movie, The Mission, directed by Roland Joffé and headlined by such great

names in acting as Jeremy Irons, Liam Neeson and Robert De Niro, won the Palme d'Or award

at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival, the Golden Globe for Best Original Score and Best Screenplay

in 1987, and the Oscar for Best Cinematography in 1987. In addition, it was nominated and won

a number of other awards, including a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars.1

The movie revolves around 18th century Spanish Jesuits who are trying to protect a

remote South American Indian tribe after Portugal is granted rights to a formerly Spanish area,

putting the tribe in danger of being subjected to pro-slavery Portugal and its military forces.

The impact of this movie has been measurable, not just as seen by the number of awards

the movie has received, but also by the number of mentions. A casual search for “’The Mission’

Jeremy Irons” returns 689 search results on Liberty’s Online Library page0. Google delivers

about 145, 000 hits0 when searching for the same terms. It is clear the movie had an impact on

those who viewed it. Yet does it depict the historical background accurately, and in which light

does it set Christian mission? The Mission allows its viewers to understand the difficulty of mid-

18th century missions in the light of political currents.

THE STORY

The Mission tells the story of a mid-18th century priest, Father Gabriel, played by Jeremy

Irons, who seeks to start a mission in a remote area of South America among the Guaraní in

1 IMDb, Awards for The Mission, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091530/awards (accessed April 7, 2012).

0 Liberty University, Online Search, http://liberty.summon.serialssolutions.com/search?s.q=%22The+Mission%22+%22Jeremy+Irons%22 (accessed April 8, 2012).

0 Google Search, https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ie=UTF-8&ion=1#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=%22The+Mission%22+%22Jeremy+Irons%22&oq=%22The+Mission%22+%22Jeremy+Irons%22&aq=f&aqi=g1g-v3&aql=&gs_l=hp.3..0j0i15l3.173l542987l0l543658l15l11l0l0l0l0l269l1651l2j6j3l11l0.frgbld.&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=87c6230bd8e448f1&ion=1&biw=1366&bih=600 (accessed April 8, 2012).

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order to convert them to Christianity. This community lives above the menacing and dangerous

Iguazu Falls. The tribe’s encounter with Christianity has not been an easy one. The rejection of

this intrusion is exemplified in the first scene as the Guaraní send a priest to his death down the

falls while tied to a cross. When Father Gabriel makes the journey to the Guaraní, the scene

seems to repeat itself, yet by playing his oboe, he captivates the Guaraní with his music, and they

allow him to live.

The slaver and mercenary Rodrigo Mendoza, played by Robert De Niro, is seen capturing

natives and bringing them back to a nearby plantation, the one of the Spanish governor Cabeza.

It is here that Mendoza realizes that his fiancée is in love with his younger brother Felipe whom

he kills in a duel in anger. While Cabeza acquits him of murder, Mendoza is pained by what he

has done and slips into depression. Father Gabriel, who visits Mendoza, charges him to seek

penance for what he has done. Mendoza seeks to find it by carrying a bundle of heavy armor up

the falls to the territory of the Guaraní. When he finally reaches their territory, he finds

forgiveness from the ones who should hate him for trying to enslave them and is overcome with

emotions because of the acceptance that is being shown him.

At the mission, a place of peace and harmony, Mendoza accepts a Bible from Father

Gabriel and asks to be ordained. He becomes a priest under Father Gabriel and Father Fielding,

played by Liam Neeson. The mission grows and succeeds under the guidance of these men. Yet

danger arises from another side: the Spanish, in the Treaty of Madrid of 1750, have given lands

in South America to the Portuguese. They, unlike the Spanish, still held to slave trade, thereby

endangering the Jesuit missions, or redduciones (“Spanish reducción, from Latin reduction-,

reductio : a South American Indian settlement directed by Jesuit missionaries”)0. The Portuguese

demanded the expulsion of the Jesuits and the closing of the missions.

0 Inc Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, eleventh ed. (Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster,, 2003).

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As Fahlbusch and Bromiley write in a brief summary of this period:

This secular-religious tension came to a climax during the last quarter of the 18th century following the expulsion of the Jesuits. The minister of Portugal, the marquis of Pombal, falsely accused the Jesuits of supporting a Guaraní rebellion against the Treaty of Madrid (1750) and had them expelled from Portugal and all its American colonies in 1759—a total of 2,200 Jesuits, first from Brazil (1759) and then elsewhere (1769). The expulsion of the Jesuits, who had contributed greatly to the church’s prosperity, brought about a severe shortage of priests and a loss of intellectual and spiritual leadership. As a consequence, many native Americans left the church. The church became increasingly controlled by the state.0

This decision results in an appeal to the Papal emissary Cardinal Altamirano, sent to

survey the missions against the new demands from the Portuguese. Under political pressure,

Altamirano chooses to close all the missions. Mendoza is outraged and elects to disobey his

vows, take up arms again, and defend the mission against Portuguese and Spanish troops. Father

Fielding and many of the Guaraní follow his lead. Father Gabriel is against violence and chooses

love and ministering to the people “as a priest”, as he also advises Mendoza. He stays behind

while the battle rages and celebrates mass. In the final battle, Mendoza and Father Fielding, as

well as most of the Guaraní are killed. Father Gabriel leads a procession out of the church with

the remaining Guaraní women and children. They are killed by the troops advancing against

them, lighting the mission on fire.

The end of the movie shows Altamirano meeting with both Cabeza and Portuguese

Governor, Don Hontar, asking them whether this slaughter was necessary. Hontar replies in a

manner that implies that what happened was unfortunate and at the same time inevitable because

"we must work in the world; the world is thus." Altamirano replies, "No, thus have we made the

world. Thus have I made it."0 In a final scene, the only survivors, a number of children, leave the

mission by boat on the river.

0 Erwin Fahlbusch and Geoffrey William Bromiley, The Encyclopedia of Christianity (Leiden, Netherlands: Wm. B. Eerdmans; Brill, 1999-2003), 192.

0 The Mission, The Film, http://academic.sun.ac.za/forlang/bergman/real/mission/film8.htm (accessed April 8, 2012).

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THEMES OF THE MOVIE

Sin, remorse, renunciation, repentance and struggle all play a part in this epic movie. The

former slaver Mendoza, first and foremost, serves as the character giving the viewer an

understanding of the terrible burden sin places on a man. At the same time, Mendoza has not lost

his old fighting nature, and when the Treaty of Madrid brings the closure of the mission where

Mendoza has found peace, he is willing to forego his vows as a priest and take up arms to defend

the mission. Father Gabriel, on the other hand, believes that the message of the Bible is love in

all things, and that priests are called to live peaceful lives and to lead by their example. He does

not see violence as an answer. In the end, both men are dead.

Altamirano, Cabeza and Hontar pose difficult ethical questions to the viewer through

their discourses and actions. The viewer is left to answer the question whether it is ever right to

intervene in another culture to the point that the culture is changed (a question which many

believers will answer in the affirmative if they perceive that the Gospel will bring positive

changes to the society), but also whether political agendas can be allowed to serve as

justifications for actions that affect multitudes of humans to the point of their dispersion or even

death. From a Christian perspective, the question that needs to be answered based on Mendoza’s

and Gabriel’s differences is whether taking up arms can be the right choice when faced with

government restrictions and decisions that one deems unethical.

MISSIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF COLONIAL EXPANSION

Tucker writes that “from the very beginning of English exploration of the New World

there was a strong impulse to win the native population to Christianity. Evangelizing the natives

became a powerful rationale for colonialism, and colonial charters emphasized this.”0 In the

movie The Mission, the effort to evangelize is generally depicted as a positive one. From the

0 Ruth Tucker, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian Missions (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004), 74.

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martyr missionary of the first scene to the peaceful entry Father Gabriel makes playing his oboe,

Christianity and its advances into the heartland of the South American natives’ homelands is

seen generally as a positive as they bring prosperity and peace to formerly antagonistic and war-

faring tribes. The negative side of this evangelization becomes apparent in the political

disruptions that are imposed on the priests. They are unable to protect the natives in their care

from the harsh decrees being passed down from governments ruling literally a continent and an

ocean away.

MISSIONARY STRATEGY DEPICTED IN THE FILM

Father Gabriel comes as a man of peace to the Guaraní. While they have murdered

another priest who sought to bring the Gospel to them, Father Gabriel approaches them

seemingly unafraid, but also ready to be killed if they will do so. Much about this scene was

reminiscent of Jim Elliott and his four missionary colleagues who tried to reach the Aucas in the

Ecuadorian jungle and were murdered in 1956. In the movie, Father Gabriel succeeds and very

rapidly brings the Christian faith to the natives. His mission serves as both a sanctuary and a

place of education for them as they learn new skills, such as animal husbandry or crop growing.

This strategy is still seen today, e.g. when looking at the work of such organizations as

World Vision, who start programs in their ADPs (area development programs) to teach skills to

the children in the community to enable them to live better lives.

OTHER ASPECTS OF MISSION HISTORY

The film depicts the hardships of early missionary work well. Father Gabriel’s strenuous

journey to the Guaraní, the effort he puts forth to build the community, the loneliness he

undoubtedly experiences there, and the exchanges with political powers all find their reflection

in the stories of missionaries of centuries past and to some degree even today.

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The Guaraní culture was depicted faithfully in the movie (from the author’s limited

understanding and having been to the South American jungle only once). There was no hiding

the partial or full nakedness of the children or adults. This in itself made the movie attractive. It

was not attempting to hide the difference in culture Father Gabriel, Father Fielding and Mendoza

faced.

CONCLUSION

There have been voices critical of the movie in that in the end Christianity appears to lose

or that elements of liberation theology have tinted the movie, but this needs to be seen through

the lens of Hollywood. The struggles depicted here, Father Gabriel’s struggle to start a reduccion

in a largely inaccessible area, Mendoza’s personal struggles that he overcomes with the kind

response by those he sought to enslave, and finally Altamirano’s struggle to find what is the right

answer to the political demands in the context of Church strategy he is faced with all contribute

to a movie that leaves the viewer in pensive thought long after the final credits roll.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fahlbusch, Erwin, and Geoffrey William Bromiley. The Encyclopedia of Christianity. Leiden, Netherlands: Wm. B. Eerdmans; Brill, 1999-2003.

IMDb. Awards for The Mission. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091530/awards (accessed April 7, 2012).

The Mission. The Film. http://academic.sun.ac.za/forlang/bergman/real/mission/film8.htm (accessed April 8, 2012).

Tucker, Ruth. From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian Missions. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004.