The Mission

Student’s Name Professor’s Name Course Date Critical Review of the Movie: The Mission (1986) Answer 1 The plot of the movie revolves around the stories of Father Gabriel, who was a Spanish priest and Rodrigo Mendoza, a former mercenary and slave trader. Father Gabriel is on a mission to preach to the Guarani indigenous people located near the borders of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. As Mendoza suffers from the pricks of conscience after killing his brother, he decides to join Father Gabriel’s Jesuit mission to redeem himself from his sins (The Midnight Screening). When the settlements of the Gurani tribe are transferred to Portugal from Spain, the colonial policies of the Portuguese favour the slave trade, so they come into direct conflict with the Jesuit mission and order its immediate abandonment. This conflict results in a deadly armed struggle between Spanish and Portuguese forces as Father Gabried peacefully resists the Portuguese and Mendoza decides to use force against the Portuguese colonists (The Midnight Screening). The most prominent theme of the movie is colonialism and greed, and the resulting violation of human rights; another subtheme is the power of redemption from sins in transforming human life. The sub-theme of conflict between faith and politics of power is the driving force of the plot of the story. Finally, the dilemma to choose armed struggle and violence over peaceful resistance makes up one prominent sub-theme of the story that adds to the comple...