The Mission
Directed by Roland Joffé
- adventure
- drama
- action
- history
The story
When a Spanish Jesuit goes into the South American wilderness to build a mission in the hope of converting the Indians of the region, a slave hunter is converted and joins his mission. When Spain sells the colony to Portugal, they are forced to defend all they have built against the Portuguese aggressors.
What it’s like
Lush, humid greens and misted waterfalls dominate the frame, with Chris Menges's cinematography leaning on wide, slow landscapes of jungle canopy, cascading water and mountain light that make the wilderness feel both sacred and oppressive. Candlelit interiors and soft golden dusk contrast with sudden shafts of hard daylight, and Ennio Morricone's oboe-led score, mournful and hymnal, rises under long, unhurried shots. The pacing is deliberate and often contemplative, built around prayer, quiet labour and slow reflection, then broken by brutal, sustained violence in its final act, including a graphic massacre and bloodshed that lands hard. Its emotional register is solemn and elegiac, with a moral struggle about faith, guilt and redemption at its core, as a hardened slave hunter and a gentle priest wrestle over how to protect a community. Best suited to viewers who enjoy serious, historically weighted drama and do not mind a heavy, sorrowful mood, though it is not a gentle watch.
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