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By
NICK ZEGARAC
"The Mission" is a
heartbreaking tale of redemption, survival and
tragedy set during the 18th century in the
mountains of Argentina and Brazil. It stars Robert
De Niro as Rodrigo Mendoza, a ruthless hunter who
thinks nothing of murder as a solution to almost
any problem. When Rodrigo discovers that his
brother Felipie (Aidan Quinn) is having an affair
with his fiancée, Rodrigo publicly runs him
through with his sword. Forced to take refuge in
the mountains, Rodrigo is captured by the very
same tribe of Indians he once hunted for sport.
The tribe takes Rodrigo to their village, a
civilized El Dorado hidden in the mountains and
presided over by a Jesuit priest, Gabriel (Jeremy
Irons).
It is through Gabriel's goodness that Rodrigo
finds peace and a spiritual conversion occurs
which endears him to the villagers. However, the
Spanish are not about to let the Indian culture
prosper and a bloody war ensues with predictable
carnage and suffering as its net result.
Both Roland Joffé's direction and Ennio
Morricone's bone-chilling score brilliantly
capture the immediacy and the grandeur of a nation
of people doomed to destruction by outside forces.
Not to be missed, this 1986 Cannes Festival winner
is perhaps De Niro and Iron's finest hours on
film.
Warner Home Video has done a fantastic job on the
DVD transfer. Though color and black levels are
still a little weak, the picture is, for the most
part, nicely balanced, with rich textured hues,
excellent contrast levels and incredible detail,
even in the remotest background information.
Pixelization is non-existent. Aliasing and
shimmering of fine details is extremely rare. The
audio is 5.1 remixed and has a nice expanse in the
musical score and effects track. Voices do tend to
sound front and center rather than spread the
channels but, then again, this is a movie from
1986, with all the inherent shortcomings of a
soundtrack from that decade factored in.
Background hiss is non-existent.
Extras on this two-disc edition include an audio
commentary by Joffé, a theatrical trailer and an
absolutely brilliant documentary, "Omnibus: The
Making of The Mission," that revisits the actual
sites used in the making-of "The Mission." |
