The Mission, released in 1986, is a British film that revolves around the life and times of a Jesuit Missionary send to South America. Set and acted in Colombia, the film highlights the complex nature of Christian missions. On one hand, the missionaries are genuine about the well-being of the local people, while, on the other hand, the church in Europe has a different agenda. Political interference also threatens the little gains by the Jesuit mission. Mired in this conflict of interests, the Catholic Church sends an emissary (Cardinal Altamirano) on a fact-finding mission and to make a decision on whether to close the missions or not. The Mission and Its Dynamism As the title of the film suggests, the mission is all about achieving strategic objectives- in this case, the objectives of the church. However, as the film progresses, the strategic objectives are not static rather they change with the events of the day. At the beginning of the film, Father Gabriel has a single mission in South America: to convert the Guarani community into Christianity. Father Gabriel is fully aware that the previous missionary ended up as a martyr, and the challenge ahead of him would be enormous. This prompts the father to adopt a different approach of evangelism. For instance, he climbs the cliffs of Iguazu Falls up to the top, where the previous father met his demise, and plays his Oboe. The Guarani people get attracted to the music, and allow him to live. In this scene, Father Gabriel shows that it is possible to pacify the people using individual efforts that are beneficial to the individual, as well as the society at large. The Guarani Indians realize that the father is a man of peace, something they easily identify with (Saeger 394). The individual effort exhibited here proves that personal actions can be beneficial to a collective group.
In the later stages of the film, the mission goes beyond evangelizing to the people. The local mission has to support the Guarani people in their efforts to emancipate themselves from slavery. The church is fully aware that slavery goes against what they stand for: God does not support slavery. However, the authorities of the day would hear none of that. Initially, the locals led by Mendoza want to take up radical measures such as taking up arms to protect themselves (Niro and Irons). Although Father Gabriel does not support taking arms to express disgust of slavery, he would not abandon the people. Again, his leadership demonstrates that individual actions can be personally and collectively beneficial.
The film’s title is also characteristic of the social change going on within the society. In the town of Asuncion, for instance, the European settlers build their plantations using slave labour. Rodrigo Mendoza is very active in bringing many slaves to work on the farms. The institution of slavery is further perpetuated when the Spanish and Portuguese crowns sign a treaty to transfer all the local missions to Portuguese jurisdiction. The Portuguese crown still wants to fight for the perpetuation of slavery, prompting the Pope to send an emissary from Rome.
However, the church fights to overcome establishments supporting slavery. Father Gabriel, for instance, is adamant that slavery is against God’s Will. The church also demonstrates that equitable distribution of wealth to all members of the community is possible. At the San Miguel mission, for instance, the church is successful in fostering equitable distribution of wealth. However, Cardinal Altamirano makes a grave mistake by ruling that the missions should be placed under the Portuguese jurisdiction that openly supports slavery. In the end, although Father Gabriel does not succeed in leading a peaceful resistance of the Portuguese rule, he leads his followers into a hail of bullets hurled by the army. The people remain unarmed, marching forward armed with sacraments.Cardinal Altamirano’s Mission Following the treaty signed between Spanish and Portuguese crowns, the Pope sends an emissary to decide whether it is necessary to hand over the mission to the Portuguese. Cardinal Altamirano, the emissary send by Pope, faces a challenging task ahead. On one hand, the good cardinal has to make a decision that will not affect other missions in Europe. On the other hand, the cardinal has to make a decision that is in the best interests of the church and the people of Guarani. As the Cardinal confines to Father Gabriel, resistance to political authority stands to jeopardize the Jesuit missions in Europe. Although this is a decision that annoys the local people, it is also a call that needs to be made for the sake of global interdependence. European Governors and the Indigenous People The cardinal’s decision mirrors what the European governors think of the indigenous people. This reveals the European’s bias towards people of different background and social identities. The governors, through their wheeler dealer’s, convey the notion that the natives should be submissive to their authority all the time. As depicted in the film, the Europeans use their group identities to prejudice people outside their groups and identities. This, in turn, makes the Europeans to treat the indigenous people differently. For example, in the town of Asuncion, the Europeans establish a plantation economy using slaves supplied by the likes of Mendoza. The Europeans also support raids to capture and enslave the Guaraní Indians. Later, as the people oppose the Portuguese rule, slavery is one of the things that inform their decision. Although the means used to resist the rule may not be right, in the conventional sense, the people have the right to freedom. Slavery goes against the basic of human rights, and no one should suffer such injustice.
As the film depicts, it is always a challenge to build positive relationships with people outside one’s cultural confines. Although treating other people, who do not from part of one’s group and identity, differently may not be expressed openly, there are subtle ways through which such differences become evident. However, people, who are culturally self-aware, try as much as possible to accommodate other people groups outside their conventional identities. I, for instance, do not treat outsiders differently. This could be attributed to exposure to cultural norms of people from different races and geographical areas. Self-Reflection Although the film’s settings reflect events happening in the mid 18th century, the lessons from the film are also applicable to what is happening today. Social injustice, for instance, is still a practice that remains prevalent in the current society; it is only that the means used to perpetuate it that has changed over time (Thomas, Crow and Franklin 45). On the global scale, for instance, there are various activities that reveal attempts to dominate and dictate political affairs of other developing nations. For example, in the recent cases of upspring in Middle-east, western nations take the blame for supporting rebels. In the case Egypt, for example, U.S. and its allies supported rebels to fight the government of Hosni Mubarak.
Whether such actions are justified or not, it is a well known fact that U.S. felt threatened by Mubarak’s rule, for many years. Right now, the country is still mired in political instability, with the escalation of violence being the order of the day. Therefore, the decision, by the U.S., to support rebels could be interpreted as a disguise used to bring about regime change. This is not an isolated case, and there are other acts that still show attempts to realign the geopolitics of various places around the world. The ill-advised decision to storm Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein’s government, for instance, under the guise of preventing the Iraqi government from carrying out the production of weapons of mass destruction proves that misguided agenda may not be ruled out as the sole reason for such decisions.
However, this is not a blanket approval of the ills meted out by the regimes mentioned. It is an attempt to bring to light the misuse of political power, especially on the international scale. While it is good to prevent social injustice in other parts of the world, it is also equally important to avoid scenarios that lead to escalation of violence. The use of diplomacy would achieve sustainable results, without resorting to the use of arms. The fact that other groups outside our conventional identities face challenges does not grant us the right to use our power to achieve short-term gains (Lynch and Hanson 14). Conclusion The Mission is a film that depicts the challenges that face the society at any given point, no matter the generation. The lack of cultural competence pushes people to be hostile to people outside their cultural groups, leading to the perpetuation of social injustice. However, as the film depicts, there is always a way to overcome such challenges.
Works Cited
Lynch, Eleanor W. and Marci J. Hanson. Developing cross-cultural competence . Baltimore, MD
: Paul H. Brookes Pub. Co, 2004. Print.
Saeger, James Schofield. "The Mission and Historical Missions: Film and the Writing of
History." The Americas (1995): 51 (3), 393-415. Print.
The Mission . Dir. Rollande Joffe. Perf. Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons. 1986. Film.
Thomas, Nancy Pickering, Sherry R. Crow and Lori L. Franklin. Information Literacy and
Information Skills Instruction. Santa Barbara, CA : ABC-CLIO , 2011. Print.
