The Killing Fields (film)
1985
Search results
Two great colonial forces are competing for the hearts and minds of the native Indians. On the one hand, there are the imperialist plunderers, who want to establish a trade in riches and slaves. On the other hand, there are the missionaries, who want to convert the Indians to Christ.
- The Killing Fields movie review (1984) | Roger Ebert
The whole atmosphere of this period is suggested most...
- The Mission movie review & film summary (2023) | Roger Ebert
The biographical lead-up to Chau’s mission is fascinating...
- The Killing Fields movie review (1984) | Roger Ebert
The Mission was released in 1986 with little success in theaters, despite garnering a respectable 7 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Since then, it's developed a devoted fan base who consider it among the most underrated films of the decade.
64% Tomatometer 28 Reviews 87% Audience Score 25,000+ Ratings Jesuit priest Father Gabriel (Jeremy Irons) enters the Guarani lands in South America with the purpose of converting the natives to...
- (28)
- Roland Joffé
- PG
- Robert De Niro
Oct 13, 2023 · The biographical lead-up to Chau’s mission is fascinating because it shows the formation of a young mind.
- Haunting Imagery
- The Story Behind The Story
- Seeking A Center
- The Temporal and The Eternal
About two things, at least, Ebert was undoubtedly correct: The Missionis a difficult film, and it is a beautiful one. That it’s artfully photographed is hardly a surprise: Joffé, Menges, and producer David Puttam previously collaborated on The Killing Fields, which also won an Oscar for cinematography. And the film’s Amazon valley setting, with its...
But it’s also a difficult film. Though it shares creative ties with A Man for All Seasons and The Killing Fields, few will find The Mission as immediately accessible or as gripping as either of those two powerful films. The drama here seems diffuse, without an obvious center, or even an obvious protagonist. Of three key characters, it’s possible to...
This bare-bones sequence of events is not a film plot, only a history lesson. Examining the plot of The Mission, we find that the story divides readily into three acts, each with its own moral crisis. First, there is Mendoza’s personal struggle between despair and redemption. Then comes the sad, foregone investigation of Cardinal Altamirano (Ray Mc...
This is not to say that Fr. Gabriel is concerned only with his converts’ eternal state but not with their temporal condition. On the contrary, St. James’ exhortation to look after the bodily needs of the poor as well as their spiritual needs was the whole point of the ambitiously utopian Jesuit reduccionmission communities. During Altamirano’s insp...
In THE MISSION, mercenary and enslaver Captain Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert De Niro) is wracked with guilt over killing his brother in duel. He manages to find a new purpose in life when he becomes a Jesuit monk in an 18th-century South American mission.
The Mission. Passionate performances from De Niro and Jeremy Irons in this stark but thematically complex historical drama. Powerful and atmospheric, if oddly structureless, The Mission is a magnificently filmed and strongly political view of the conflict between church, state and capitalism.
