Sitting down to watch The Mission, I was plagued with curiosity. I loved Robert De Niro’s roles as an American-Italian mobster in Martin Scorsese films like The Godfather 2, Goodfellas, and Casino, so I was excited to watch one of my favorite actors in a movie related to studies. The film proved to be an enlightening experience for me, witnessing ideas about Jesuits and other baroque missionaries worldwide, about which I had only learned through books. The movie intrigued me about the indigenous Guarani people, then made me question the influence of the Jesuits on the Guarani, and finally made me loathe the Spanish and Portuguese Colonists. The Mission urges a non-academic audience to understand the impact of missionaries on indigenous cultures. It entertains audiences by adding suspense, drama, and humor to historical accounts.
However, through the movie, I questioned the innocent portrayal of the Guarani people and their seamless acceptance of Christian doctrines. The movie shows how the Guarani resisted but benefited from their relationship with the Jesuits. Still, it never shows the influence of the Guarani people on the mix of the two cultures. When I read Bailey’s The New Plant of the Primitive Church, I better understood how the Guarani accepted and rejected elements of Christian belief to suit them and how other cultures across South America adapted to colonial influence.
The film does a splendid job of simplifying and dramatizing historical events, much like other films about historical topics. A general audience gains bare-bones knowledge about the subject through films like The Mission, while a documentary might prove to be a more academic “public humanities” project. I have gained respect for the dramatized portrayal of historical events on film. Movies like The Mission, Schindler’s List, and Gandhi reach mass audiences with simple yet powerful messages. They also encourage conversation about the topic they deal with, including academic intervention regarding inaccuracies in the film, which avid audiences value.