Tonight was the first night of my Religion and Film class, which I'm taking this semester with a few friends.  We watched The Mission (Roland Joffe 1986), with Robert DeNiro, Jeremy Irons, and a surprisingly forgettable Liam Neeson in the background.

I would recommend the movie for the landscape of its setting and the force of its soundtrack alone...but its real power is in the brief character study it provides of two Jesuit priests (DeNiro and Irons).  I don't plan to write a whole lot about the movie here, because I really think you should watch it.  But I am mentioning it now because I think it contributes to discussions I've been having with people about how films portray violence and potential reactions to violence (I wrote about this a few weeks ago concerning A Time to Kill [Schumacher 1996] and Road to Perdition [Mendes 2002]).

The Mission portrays the efforts of a group of Jesuit missionaries in South America (Brazil, I think) in the context of rapidly changing political and colonial relationships.  We follow as one man steps out of a life of violence and into a life of service, offering a moving story of change and redemption.  The final scenes present a choice between violence or peace in the face of oncoming violence and oppression.  And the film remains surprisingly neutral.  I expected it to pick sides - to favor someone who is willing to fight (physically) for what he believes, or someone who refuses to resort to violence, even in the face of certain death.  But it does not seem to pick sides (at least not heavey-handedly); it manages to present both sides with a fascinating mix of heroism and futility, and it does not let us escape without making us realize that both sides ultimately ended the same way.  As someone looking for the possibility of peace in response to violence, I found it easy to look for parts that I agreed with...but I think Joffe did a good job of leaving some interpretive space in the end.

Already I have written too much, but I am trying not to be overly specific.  Please see it if you ever have a chance.  It is a moving film, and there is a surprising amount of hope that can come from parts of it.

And if you are worried about the missionary talk, don't worry: it is not a "Christian" movie...especially in terms of the quality of filmmaking.