The Mission Movie Essay

The Mission is a 1986 British film inspired by true historical events. Set in central South America in 1750, the movie is centered on Jesuit missionaries who are expanding their religious venture into areas occupied by the free Guarani Indians. Father Gabriel is a Jesuit priest who is building a mission village in the rain forest above the majestic Iguazo waterfalls. During an illegal slave raid in the area, he has a brief encounter with Rodrigo Mendoza, a local Spanish slaver, and tells him that he’s not supposed to be there. The men are brought together again a few months later when Mendoza, who has killed his own brother in a duel over a woman, agrees to join Father Gabriel’s mission and to work with the Guarani as penance for his crime. …show more content…
While the signing of the treaty, which divided South America between the Spanish and the Portuguese, and “by which seven missions were transferred to Portuguese territory,” did happen in 1750, the war didn’t break out until four years later in 1754, and it and lasted for two years, until …show more content…
Their natural intelligence and propensity for the arts, including the ability to build musical instruments, indicated the kind of sophistication that Europeans believed made a society civilized. These abilities didn’t diminish their capacity for violence; in the opening scene of the movie, they tie a man – a Jesuit priest -- to a wooden raft, release him into the turbulent river, where he’s carried downstream to the waterfalls, and plummets to his