Review – The Mission

This relic from David Puttnam’s tenure at Warner is one of my all-time favorite films. Rarely before and rarely since has Hollywood taken a well-crafted script with something worthwhile to say and put enough money and star power behind it to make it turn out just right. Robert DeNiro and Jeremy Irons (backed by a talented supporting cast including a young Liam Neeson) play two Jesuits with disparate backgrounds. The two are united, it spirit if not in tactics, by efforts to keep the Portuguese from destroying Indian missions in South America in the 1750s. The film manages to be touching without being saccharine or syrupy. This film was nominated for seven Oscars, won one (cinematography), and deserved more. Buy the tape