We meet Father Gabriel (Jeremy Irons), the hero of the film, when he paddles upriver alone against the current, ascends the falls, and explores the dark Guarani land armed only with his oboe. His playing entices the simple movie Guaranis into choosing a mission. The Guarani take him back to their village where they begin to learn about the ways of the Lord. Father Gabriel in the beginning and throughout the entire film is portrayed as a very devoted follower of Christ. His mission in the movie is to spread the Word of God. He wants to save the lives of the Guarani people!
This is also where we meet Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert de Niro), who in the beginning is portrayed as an evil man. He has no shame in hunting the Guarani people, which he later sells into slavery or kills. Movie slave hunter Mendoza metamorphoses from violent villain to peaceful hero. After killing his brother, Mendoza withdraws from the world. Father Gabriel assuages Mendoza's guilt by letting him serve Guaranis. As penance, he drags a sack of armor until a Guarani severs him from his burden. The San Carlos Guaranis embrace Mendoza, who now loves but remains superior to them. When they capture a pig, for example, Mendoza refuses to kill it. Guaranis who kill little pigs are brutal primitives. Mendoza's gentle tolerance lets him lose a "king of the canoe" game with an Indian boy. Rodrigo thanks Father Gabriel for receiving him in the missions, and the priest says, "You should thank the Guarani." In the movie we see that the Guaranis accept Christianity right away, but this isn't the case. Many refused for years if not for generations. Guarani ideology failed to appreciate good and evil, sin, and other Christian doctrines. Guaranis believed in capricious magical spirit powers, and native religious practitioners sought to persuade them to help and not to hurt their clients and themselves.
When we final meet Cardinal Altamirano (Ray McAnally) he is deciding if the missions will continue to help bring the Guaranis to Christ or to shut down the missions all together. To complete his assignment, Altamirano visits the "great mission of San Miguel." When he makes it to San Miguel he is fascinated by the Guaranis educational success, a bounteous mission orchard, and Indian singing. Guaranis making violins fascinate him. These images proclaim Jesuit love, not Guarani capacity, and the movie's historical and Indian problems are revealed by the appearance of a Guarani priest at San Miguel, because there were no Indian Jesuits in Paraguay. Altamirano also sees the scars on the Indian slaves that was put there by the Paraguayan master; a man improbably fled from a civil province estate to the missions.
Altamirano must order Indians from their homes. "Though I knew that everywhere in Europe states were tearing at the authority of the Church," he says, "and though I knew well that to preserve itself there, the Church must show its authority over the Jesuits here, I still couldn't help wondering whether these Indians would not have preferred that the sea and wind had not brought any of us to them." This didn't go over well at all with any of the Indians or the priests. They all felt portrayed. Because they love the Guarani, Father Gabriel and Mendoza remain in the mission, violating their vows of obedience. English priests, Fathers Ralph and John, also disobey. Because Mendoza prepares movie Guaranis for war, Father Gabriel warns him not to die with blood on his hands. After all his, Mendoza, work in the mission and after his hard penance he goes back on his vows to the Church and fight back. He refuses to let this happen to the Guaranis! Although Father Gabriel wants to fight back he can't break his vow to Christ. As the movie draws to a close we see Father Gabriel is shot while carrying the cross, but the Guarani follower of Christ continued to carry the cross. We also see that Mendoza takes his old sword that one of the Guarani young boys clean up for him so he can use it to fight back. The movie was a great! Joffe did a wonderful job on showing how priests can guide and direct those people who were living in a life without Christ to a life of Christian beliefs.
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