The Missionary

The movie “The Mission”, directed by Roland Joffé is a 1986 British movie about the Jesuit missionaries experience in 18th century South American. The movie is partly narrated by Cardinal Altamirano. The Mission portrays the Church as corrupted, the Jesuits as being noble and the Guarani Indians community as animals.

Cardinal Altamirano, former Jesuits priest is the Pope’s representative who is send to inspect father Gabriel’s mission (Saeger 394). The Portuguese wanted these mission closed so the Guarani Indians community are no longer protected by the mission. The Pope felt that he may lose Portugal’s support if the mission were not closed. Due to the fear of losing Portugal’s support, the Pope sends Altamirano to convince the Jesuits to close the mission. Altamirano was instructed by the Pope that if the Jesuits were not convinced to close the mission, then Altamirano would have to close the mission himself. This passage shows that the Church is corrupted. Altamirano never came to decide whether or not the mission will remain under the church’s protection. Instead, he came to convince the Jesuits to close the mission. If the mission were to remain under the protection of the Church, then the Guarani Indians community would have been safe from the slave traders. Altamirano visits the great Mission of St Miguel and the Gabriel’s St Carlos Mission. When Altamirano visited St Miguel and the Gabriel’s St Carlos Mission he was amazed at the success in converting the Guarani Indians to Christianity. Even though Altamirano was amazed, he ruled in favor of the colonists in order to protect the Church. However, he knew that he was wrong and should have ruled in favor of the Jesuits (Saeger 405). Altamirano did as he was instructed, there...

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...y, and giving them a different set of rules to adhere to, the natives can be considered as human and not animals. Therefore, it can be concluded that the Jesuits most probably saw the Guarani as animals until they adapted to a different set of rules, and converted to Christianity.

Cardinal Altamirano, who represents the Pope is shown as a corrupted member of the Church when he rules in favor of the colonists. All Altamirano wanted was to protect the Church. He came to South American to take a decision which was already decided beforehand. The Jesuits are shown as a noble members who are helping the Guarani Indians by educating them, converting them to Christianity and by defending their community against the Portuguese and the Spanish. Finally and unfortunately, the Guarani Indians are shown as animals. They are kidnaped for slavery and are called devil worshippers.