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List Price: $26.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 1721
Released: May 13, 2003 |
| Our Price: $14.32 |
| Used Price: $14.15 |
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
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.
Description of The Mission (Two-Disc Special Edition):
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
The Mission (Two-Disc Special Edition) Reviews:
Breathtaking! A movie to view over and over again! 
2009-11-05 - A magnificent masterpiece, superb soundtrack, and a story that is truly heartbreaking. For anyone who truly loves the cinematic experience, this is the movie that is a must see. I am anxiously waiting to see this on BD.
Rare scenery 
2009-08-07 - A visiting Franciscan Brother said that he saw this movie when he was a teenager and it changed his life.The scenery is breathtaking- I will never see this area with my own eyes...this was the next best thing. South American history was a lot different from North American history-I had not considered just how much. Amid the church scandals of late-sometimes I think we have to be reminded of the great acts of some good people.
2.5 stars out of 4 
2009-06-10 - The Bottom Line:
Joffe, who was a pretty good director before he completely fell off the wagon, DeNiro (ditto, but substitute actor for director) and Irons certainly throw themselves into the film, and the cinematography is really pretty impressive, but the film doesn't offer much of interest below its pretty surface and I spent most of it wishing I was rewatching Aguirre the Wrath of God; I admired a lot about The Mission but I never felt I was drawn in.
Waiting For The Blu-Ray Of This Magnificent Film
2009-05-24 - The more I see this film the more I like it. First off, it has magnificent South American jungle scenery, filmed in an area that features multiple gorgeous falls. This is one of the prettiest films you will ever watch - guaranteed.
"The Mission" won the Oscar for Best Cinematography in 1986 and that award was well-deserved. There is just one stunning scene after another. I can only hope it gets a sharp Blu-Ray treatment someday. Then it will really look awesome!
The story is very interesting, too: a supposed true-life account what happened back in the 1700s when a few dedicated priests tried to bring Christianity to the natives. It shows what occurred when a combination of the Catholic Church and the Portugese slave-traders and politicians attempted to put a halt to their missionary. This is a drama, not an "action film," but the movie has extended violent ending, and sometimes is shocking in that finale.
Jeremy Irons, as the dedicated Jesuit who heads the mission, and Robert De Niro in a surprise role as the killer slave-trader-turned-repentant priest are both excellent in their leading roles. It was interesting to see a young Liam Neeson, too.
To some, the story might be a bit slow I found it very involving. After several viewings, I began to fully appreciate to lush score by Ennio Morricone. This is simply one of the prettiest and classiest movies I've seen and it's highly recommended.
Great Movie That Moved Me Personally! The Sign of a Classic!
2009-03-23 - This movie moved me (no pun intended) on a number of levels as its theme of hypocrisy, greed, betrayal and the inhumanity and cruelty of man hits home hard and yet I couldn't help but feel that it was a little too short at just a little over 2 hours long. Perhaps this film too was a victim of commercial factors and that it was edited to this time frame but if ever a film would be better off for being longer it would have to be this one.
I felt the characters didn't have time to develop enough and that this fine wine didn't get to breathe before we were forced to drink it. I felt DeNiro's story at the beginning and his character could have benefitted from some development and I would have liked to have seen more of the everyday life of the tribe and their spiritual development.
For this reason, I hope a good Director's Cut Blu-ray version is released soon as this movie if given the chance to slowly unravel has the potential to be at least as good as "Lawrence of Arabia". This doesn't mean that this is a bad film in any way but it certainly could have been at least a little bit better. In fact it is a testimony to how good this film is in that I'm actually asking for it to be at least 3 hours long instead of wishing the running length to be shorter as I do for many other films.
As someone from Portuguese/Asian descent who is also Catholic; this film moved me greatly as it reminded me of how imperfect some of my ancestors both of descent and of faith were and I was actually very sad by many of the scenes. The fact that Portugal still allowed slavery even after Spain "abolished" it sickens me and the fact that the Church had so little faith in their beliefs to engage tragically in the politics of the time to totally pervert Christ's teachings leaves me also with great disappointment.
The Cardinal's inexplicable decision to not protect the innocent and Christ's little innocent ones from effectively what became Satan's minions showed his great lack of faith in the very religion he professes to follow. His misplaced concern that the Jesuits would be wiped out of existance as being a worthy reason to commit a gross sin of omission and allow genocide for greed sickened me. If it was God's will to protect the Jesuits, nothing would have threatened them and all they needed to do was to do the simple command of Jesus to go forth and spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Jeremy Irons does this to the bitter end and hence imitates Christ the best while everyone else ironically does the opposite and does Satan's work in the name of Christ. I found the scene where even the Blessed Sacrament is shot at to be the most touching as "followers" of Christ actually shoot at Him. This film will stay with me for a long time as I ponder the many aspects over time.
This dvd is very well put together as well as I really like the mostly cardboard packaging and the bonus dvd is a real treat describing the making of the film as well as highlighting how natives in South America are still being abused and exploited to this day. The picture quality is very good and so is the sound quality although I would repeat that a longer, Director's Cut version restored both picture and sound-wise in Blu-ray would be a real treat. With the 25th anniversary of the film due in a couple of years time, this would be a good opportunity to do such a project.
I wait with bated breath!
Recommended!
