SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Pandhalt Possibly the greatest musical score ever written for a film. The only deduction from the maximum 10, is that whilst believable, the great actor Ray MacAnally, is just not sufficiently wicked! In all a rather sobering commentary on the entire colonial era, and the great destruction it wrought on communities in South America and Africa.

Patricia Carter I know why some critics dislike this movie, it's because Robert de Niro is not the centre of attentions for a change. It's not really about him, it's about indians in the Amazon and it's about a piece of history Americans aren't familiar with (they probably don't even know who the Jesuits is, never mind Portugal or Marquis de Pombal). I absolutely loved it, I think Jeremy Irons was great in it, it was visually and melodically (Ennio Morricone) mesmerising, it made me think about the world being a rubbish place, about evil and power. The only thing I would like to say against it is that it portrays the Jesuits as being all about love and poverty. That is not true. One of the reasons why Marquis de Pombal and the King of Portugal wanted to end the Jesuit order was because they were filthy rich, they owned lands, they had a lot of power in those days. It wasn't just about the slave market, there were political reasons behind. Anyway, I don't know why I never watched this movie on TV, why I only found out about it through Ennio's soundtrack, because it's essentially amazing.

gavin6942 18th century Spanish Jesuits try to protect a remote South American Indian tribe in danger of falling under the rule of pro-slavery Portugal."The Mission" is based on events surrounding the Treaty of Madrid in 1750, in which Spain ceded part of Jesuit Paraguay to Portugal. A significant subtext is the impending Suppression of the Jesuits, of which Father Gabriel is warned by the film's narrator, Cardinal Altamirano, who was once himself a Jesuit.What struck me about this film is that I watched it immediately after "Cannibal Ferox", another tale about Europeans / Americans going into the Amazon where the natives speak a little Portuguese. Both can be seen as anti-colonial films, though one is a period piece and the other is modern day (1981). What other messages do they share?

KallipsoRose I just love this movie! I saw it when it first came out (I was about 7 years old) and to this day it is still one of my favorite films. It does a very good job at showing the relationship between beauty and pain in life and the relationships different groups of people have towards one another. In some ways there are so many messages and different lessons to be learned from this but I have always felt that the real message was resonating just under the surface waiting to be discovered. That is that every person should have the freedom to live and make their own choices. There is really a lot to take in from this one and it will leave you thinking which I love. The film is about the power struggle between the Portuguese and the Spanish while they are colonizing South America in the 1700s. The struggle is between the church and slave owners who are both on a mission to pillage the lands and "civilize" the natives through their own means. Throughout the movie there is this struggle of right and wrong and the journey of redemption. Everyone is self righteous and no one is right. You are able to love and hate the same characters or at least see the human aspect in them as well as the monster. It is a provocative movie because it asks a lot of hard questions and shows that even people with good intentions can cause mass destruction. Of course the irony is that the most civilized and worldly behavior was that of the Guarani. It is also an incredible unjust and heartbreaking film that taught me a lot about (in)equality from a very early age! I must also note that Roland Joffe is a great director and the Ennio Morricone/London Philharmonic provides one of the best movie soundtracks EVER!