Product Description

Rodrigo Mendoza (ROBERT DE NIRO) was a violent soldier-for-hire in 1750s South America. Now he is a man of peace serving the Rain Forest Indians he once enslaved. But armies of Spain and Portugal threaten the lifestyle and safety of the native peoples. Now Rodrigo may have to pick up his sword and musket once again. From the producer of Chariots of Fire and the director of The Killing Fields comes a powerful epic co-starring JEREMY IRONS and graced with dazzling Academy Award-winning cinematography, set to a memorable music score and scripted by the Oscar-winning screenwriter of A Man for All Seasons and Doctor Zhivago.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1882 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2003-05-13
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .40 pounds
• Running time: 125 minutes

Features

• Sweeping and visually resplendent, The Mission is a powerful action epic about a man of the sword (Robert DeNiro) and a man of the cloth (Jeremy Irons) who unite to shield a South American Indian tribe from brutal subjugation by 18th-century colonial empires. It reunites key talents behind The Killing Fields: co-producer David Puttnam, director Roland Joffe and cinematographer Chris Menges.Winner

Amazon.com
Roland Joffé (The Killing Fields) directs this fuzzy effort at a David Lean-like epic without David Lean's sense of emotional proportion. Lean's most important screenwriting collaborator, Robert Bolt, in fact wrote The Mission, which concerns a Jesuit missionary (Jeremy Irons) who establishes a church in the hostile jungles of Brazil and then finds his work threatened by greed and political forces among his superiors. Robert De Niro is briefly effective as a callous soldier who kills his own brother and then turns to Irons's character to oversee his penance and conversion to the clergy. The narrative and dramatic forces at work in this movie should be more stirring and powerful than they are--the problem being that Joffé is too removed from them to allow us in. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

A beautifully filmed, heartbreaking masterpiece!
Robert De Niro is Rodrigo Mendoza, a wealthy adventurer who makes a fortune as a mid-eighteenth-century slave trader, capturing Guarani Indians in Paraguay and selling them for a huge profit to the local governor. Mendoza's life takes a turn for the worse, however, when he learns that the woman he loves, Carlotta (Cherie Lunghi), has fallen in love with his younger brother, Felipe (Aidan Quinn). And when he discovers them in bed together, he loses control and kills his brother in a swordfight. Afterwards, however, Mendoza is consumed with extreme guilt and he becomes a Jesuit postulant after meeting Father Gabriel (Jeremy Irons). But Father Gabriel, who has always cared for the natives and resented the slave traders, is at first unsure if Mendoza's desire to do penance and achieve redemption is sincere. Mendoza fianlly completes his penance after suffering many hardships, and he helps Gabriel teach the Indians about Christianity. As the years pass, Mendoza and Gabriel become close if somewhat wary companions, running the isolated mission above Iguacu Falls together while allowing each other plenty of personal space.

Everything changes, though, when in 1750 Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Madrid, which redefines their territorial borders in the Americas. The end result of the treaty is that Spain (which has forsaken slavery) delivers the Indian land to Portugal (where slavery remains legal). To avoid the Jesuit order being expulled from Portugal, all Jesuit missions in South America are ordered closed by the Pope, which means the Indians living there will be abandoned to the slave traders. The Guarani Indians are determined to stay and fight for the mission they've come to love, and this deeply troubles Mendoza. Despite his Jesuit vow of practicing nonviolence, he knows that with his past fighting skills as a mercenary he's the only one who can teach the Guaranis to defend themselves. Gabriel also stays, but for a different reason. The end result of the inevitable battle is predictable but nevertheless is devastating to watch.

"The Mission" is without a doubt one of the most breathtaking masterpieces I've ever seen. It is simply stunning, both in a visual and spiritual way that few films can achieve. Robert De Niro, although boldy cast against type, gave one of his finest performances and certainly deserved an oscar. Jeremy Irons was also outstanding, and the supporting cast (including Aidan Quinn and Liam Neeson) was wonderful. The scenery was incredible, as was the cinematography. And who can forget the beautiful music by one of the greatest composers of all time, Ennio Morricone? In short, to call this one of the greatest movies of all time is an understatement. The dvd has an awesome picture and sound quality that even improve the viewing experience, and the in-depth making-of documentary was very informative and entertaining. If you enjoy watching movies at all, then do yourself a favor and add this treasure to your collection!

BreathTaking Tale of Exploration and Colonialization
This is provocative cinema adventure of priests taking Kingdom of God to a native population yet untouched by advancing culture and technology.

DeNiro is powerful in role of changed mercenary/slavetrader who jumps sides, while Irons is just superb in role of spiritual giant with magic oboe who leads this people against all odds only to be overran -- or were they?

The storyline develops slowly yet beautifully in this magnificent landscape of South America. What makes it all one moving drama is a great soundtrack by Ennio Morricone.

A mesmerisingly brilliant film experience
This isn't just an excellent movie, it's nothing short of an experience that stirs your very soul. A masterpiece of cinematic art, it's unpretentious in its courage, raw in its rugged beauty and heart-wrenching in its honesty. Jeremy Irons and Robert De Niro looked like two actors who transcended their performances and got enveloped in a real embrace of the movie's theme about courage and redemption whilst making this film. The powerful current of passion in this movie is beautifully directed and surges as the movie progresses, until its climatic ending which leaves the viewer both lifted and drained. A totally underrated movie by Hollywood standards, it ironically redeems tinseltown from the bulk of what it churns out these days. A very brilliant film that demands repeated watchings to further appreciate, not to mention an unearthly film score that's short of a better word, "HEAVENLY"