Forget about Kevin Costner's sun-kissed, water-colored, Oscar-winning Dances with Wolves. Black Robe, which was directed by Bruce Beresford, a director who gave the world the finest film of the early '80s Australian new wave, Breaker Morant, and who continually collides cultures and ethnicity in his films (Mister Johnson, Driving Miss Daisy), matches and surpasses the Costner epic as an expertly crafted, brutal saga of redemption and salvation. In 1634 a young French Jesuit missionary is assigned to trek 1,500 miles through the New France wilderness to a mission settled in Huron Indian country. Black Robe chronicles the journey of Father Laforgue (Lothaire Blutheau) as he leaves his Jesuit brothers and, with the aid of a young translator and guide, Daniel (Aden Young), and eight canoes of Algonquin Indians, moves into the uncompromising Canadian northern territory on a die-hard mission to convert the natives. Mixing elements of Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans and Roland Joffé's The Mission, Beresford offers a restless tale of Laforgue's conflicted faith juxtaposed against the sublime spiritual harmony with the land that the Huron and Algonquin already hold. Black Robe dances to its own drummer and is tuned into the precarious balance between nature's mystery and spirit and the strident, unyielding religious ethic. The cinematography by Peter James is relentlessly cruel and bleak, but it absolutely conveys the obstacles that face the idealistic and blind young priest, who by the end, has faced his own awakening. The film also features one of the late, great composer Georges Delerue's most noble scores. --Paula Nechak
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: Manifest Destiny Comment: This movie is a look into the practice of 'manifest destiny' as the white man (French Clerics) pushed his way into the lives and customs of the Native Americans. It is well done with vivid moments of understatement as the Jesuit Priests unknowingly pave the way for the downfall of many native tribes (all in the name of God...of course.) Great movie for history conceptualists, students, and anyone who just wants a good adventure flick. Customer Rating: Summary: Quebec, 1534 Comment: This priest has challenges as the savages called him demon because of his black robe. He is making a trip to Huron mission and looks like Mark and his dog. The Indian canoes escort him on the trip up the St. Lawrence River. The Indian priest is evil. The midget (spirit) is a detractor from his faith, plus the temptation to love a woman. He saved a newborn child, as salvation of the poor barbarians. When they left him behind and was captured by rival Indians, not men but animals, it looked like the starting out place.
No gifts given are not paid for. They are forced to march through snow as prisoners. Had they gone in circles? God is the one who forgives. The priest enters the mission alone and finds a dead guard. He gives up on his dream as it was just an illusion. He baptizes the Hurons, and all were killed by the Iroquois later. He mistakenly put his trust in God, thinking He will guide us. Customer Rating: Summary: Wonderful movie Comment: I watched this movie yesterday and it is still on my mind and will be for a long time. I think we all know the story, but the cast and crew in this particular film made it into a work of art. The photography was particularly breathtaking. Some shots of the river made me gasp in wonder. I will watch it again for that. Please see this and give yourself some pleasure.
Customer Rating: Summary: A true Priest trying to save the damned Comment: This is a wonderful movie and it shows how reprobate our society are. it shows how, even in bad conditions and even death, that we will must preach God's word. The part where the priest baptizes that women who was dying with the arrow in her neck shows the true charity of what the Jesuits were doing. He was a man who was tryin to save a hopeless and ignorant people. It shows that some people are just destined for hell and how few get on the road that is narrow. The priest litterally takes on evil and satan when he goes into the forest. He deals with abandonment, torture, and death. But in the end people were saved and the greater glory of God shown, and thus his accomplished his mission as far as saving some souls. A wonderful movie. Customer Rating: Summary: Blackrobe Comment: This is one of the most powerful films I have ever seen. No stars and a Canadian film, so it never got big box office. The encounter between Christian missionaries and Native people I have never before seen so senstively told. There are no bad guys. It neither glorifies Christian missionaries nor does it romanticize the lives of the Native people, something "Dances with Wolves" does.
If you want a film that says the Native people were living in a kind of Eden that was contaminated by the Europeans; or if you want to see how benighted the Indians were before they were saved by the Gospel, this is not your kind of movie. But if you want to see character development on so many levels, to see the goodness and evil that can exist simultaneously within us, to see people struggle to find each other in the midst of misunderstanding and cultural presuppositions, this is well worth your viewing time. Plus, the action is exciting and the scenery is incredible.
