Premiered at the Cannes Film Festival May 16, 1986
Winner of the Palme d’Or
a Roland Joffe film
Plot(Spoiler Alert)
Set in 1740, Father Gabriel and a few other Jesuits are on a mission to travel to the northern Argentina and eastern Paraguayan jungle to help show the Guarani tribe Christianity. Meanwhile, a slaver named Rodrigo Mendoza kidnaps people from the Guarani tribe and sells them to plantations. Father Gabriel makes a new man out of Mendoza by showing him a new path and Mendoza becomes a Jesuit like him.
Blaine: Director Roland Joffe’s second feature, after “The Killing Fields”, was “The Mission”. It was another project Roland became very passionate about. The first thing Roland Joffe knew what he needed for “The Mission” after reading the script was real Waunana Indians to play the Guarani tribe or have people who were close to their pride, instead of there being extras because this was going to be a movie about them. Roland wanted everything in “The Mission” to feel as real as possible. Screenwriter Robert Bolt loved that idea and told Roland to find a real Waunana tribe, study them and try to convince them to be apart of “The Mission”. That became a challenge for Roland because he knew he wanted real Waunana Indians, but he didn’t know how he was going to find them. The thing about the Waunana Indians is that there aren’t that many of them left. They should be near extinction. For centuries the Waunana Indians were living in a rainforest, the San Juan River, South West Colombia without being disturbed by anyone. Roland traveled down there and found what he was looking for. Of course Roland didn’t get his hopes up too high because he still needed to see if they would want to be involved in a film. Waunana Indians were used for a West German drama called “Fitzcarraldo” and some of them died while shooting the movie. Roland Joffe and his team were aware of the “Fitzcarraldo” incident and they wanted to make sure that no harm would come to any of the Waunana Indians with their movie.
To earn the trust of Waunana Indians, Roland and a few others took ten of the indians out of their area to who knows where, but the important thing was to show the Waunana Indians Roland and his team were trust worthy. The Waunana Indians took a huge liking to Roland and thought he should be their tribe leader. Roland was flattered, but knew there was no way he could be their leader because for one he was white. When Roland brought the ten Waunana Indians back to their home, they told the other indians that Roland is a very trust worthy guy. The Waunana Indians agreed to be in “The Mission” because they liked that it would represent their culture. Once it was settled the Waunana Indians would be in the film a lot of transportation had to be done for them. 287 of the Waunana Indians had to be transported 1,000 miles to the set that was built for “The Mission” in Don Diego River by boat, eight buses, an airplane and buses again. Before transporting the Waunana Indians, Roland spent two weeks with the tribe to see what it is they do and he told screenwriter Robert Bolt everything he experienced. Roland was jealous of the children with how much fun they were having every time they were in the river. The children would spend every morning diving in the river and having fun. Robert Bolt thought Roland should add the stuff he experienced in the film. The Waunana Indians don’t have a lot of education. They don’t even know each other’s age. They can’t tell how old they are. Warner Bros. made sure the Waunana Indians were properly looked after and gave them education. When they arrived to Don Diego River, the Waunana Indians would celebrate with dancing and music. Roland had a great communicator to translate between him and the Waunana Indians while making “The Mission”. The Waunana Indians did whatever they could to make themselves look perfect for a scene.
One of the locations they shot at was Iguazu Falls on the border of the Argentine province of Misisones and the Brazilian stat of Parana. It was a huge challenge shooting at those falls and carrying all that heavy camera equipment around. Several different types of shots had to be done on those falls. There had to be close up shots, shots from a distance, overhead shots of the river going down, wide shots and action shots. There’s a wide shot of Jeremy Irons and they shot him from a high angle. You see Jeremy and you see the falls in the background. It’s a crane shot because it’s staying higher then Jeremy as he is climbing up. Then there were times they needed to put the camera in a good position in fast flowing rivers. And then over the water falls they used a crane for overhead shots.
The sets that were built for the Waunana Indians were so real and well crafted and constructed.
There’s a scene where Robert DeNiro’s character, Rodrigo Mendoza, a once slave trader turned Jesuit, is pulling heavy stuff with a rope wrapped around him through the falls and up hills and that stuff was heavy in real life and it was a very physical scene to shoot for Robert DeNiro. Carrying that stuff is part of Rodrigo’s redemption. Roland admired Robert for the work he had done in climbing a hill barefoot. There were rats and snakes around that area, but Robert DeNiro never flinched.
Roland wanted real Waunana Indians in “The Mission” because he felt actors like Jeremey Irons and Robert DeNiro wouldn’t have to act that much. The emotions they would show through their performances would be real.
Jeremy Irons learned how to speak the Waunana Indians’ language so he could understand what they were saying. Composer Ennio Morricone (The Hateful Eight) felt it would be impossible for him to write music for “The Mission” after seeing the footage because something like this wasn’t his style and so he turned it down. Thing was Ennio couldn’t get “The Mission” out of his head, so he decided to write some music and see what Roland thought of it. Ennio was nervous Roland wouldn’t like his work, but Roland doesn’t know that much about music as much as a composer like Ennio and he would find it weird to approve the work of a great composer’s work. Roland trusts that composers know what they are doing in the music department more than him and Roland let Ennio know that. Roland was very impressed with the music Ennio wrote for “The Mission”. One of the themes for “The Mission” sounds like something you would hear in church and think that’s the point of it because the film involves Christianity.
Next to “The Killing Fields”, making “The Mission” meant a lot to Roland.
My rating on “The Mission” is five out of five stars
