Robert Hays
English 10
Dr. Drummond
1/05/09
Beauty Triumphs over Violence
Roland Joffé’s The Mission masterfully illustrates the power of beauty and love to
overcome threatened violence and hatred. Set in the 1750s in the Brazilian forest, the
movie follows Father Gabriel, a Jesuit priest played by Jeremy Irons, as he establishes a
Christian mission to convert and offers safe haven for the native Guarani, and later resists
the closing of the mission which would effectively force the Guarani into slavery. In two
critical scenes, Father Gabriel relies on his belief in the strength of beauty to triumph over
danger. When Father Gabriel first meets the Guarani, the purity of his music prevails
over the violent intentions of their warriors. When he later faces the attacks of the
Portuguese-Spanish army, he again relies on beauty, this time in the form of his love and
faith, though the results are this time tragic.
Father Gabriel’s first meeting with the Guarani juxtaposes the beauty of music
and the jungle scenery with the danger of impending violence. The priest is traveling
alone and unarmed in the glistening, lush forest as strange, threatening insect noises
abound. Sensing the native Guarani hidden nearby, Father Gabriel carefully unwraps his
oboe and begins to play. The unease builds when the camera cuts to the band of Guarani,
in war paint, armed with bows and arrows, silently encircling Father Gabriel in the forest.
The viewers know these same Guarani had earlier tied another Jesuit priest to a cross and
sent him over a waterfall to his death. The handheld cameras, shooting from the point of
view of the approaching Guarani, and the ominous, non-diegetic booming in the
soundtrack, work together to create an intimidating tone. As the Guarani encircle him,
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Father Gabriel does not run for safety or plea for his life, rather he simply continues to
play his oboe as the stunned natives listen. No words are spoken and no violence occurs,
instead the music ultimately conquers the Guarani with its purity and perfection.
Later in the film, Father Gabriel articulates his belief in the supremacy of beauty
over violence. At this point, the mission is thriving; the Guarani are practicing
Christianity, and living in safety. However, due to a border transfer between the Spanish
and Portuguese, the mission shifts to pro-slavery Portugal’s rule, effectively closing the
mission and delivering the Guarani into slavery. In the face of the impending attack, the
priests refuse to abandon the mission. Rodrigo Mendoza (played by Robert De Niro),
who came to the mission seeking penance for violent sins in his past, and several other
priests, decide to take up arms against the Spanish-Portuguese force. But Father Gabriel
refuses to engage in the bloodshed, stating that, “If might is right, then love has no place
in the world. It may be so, it may be so. But I don’t have the strength to live in a world
like that, Rodrigo.” He holds steadfast to his conviction in the supremacy of love and
beauty; it is what provides him the courage to face danger, and likely death.
The climactic attack of the mission by the Spanish and Portuguese armies again
dramatically shows the tension between beauty and violence. The soldiers brutally kill
not only the fighting Guarani, but also the Guarani who are worshipping with Father
Gabriel. As the worshippers walk in procession, dressed in white robes, Father Gabriel
carries a cross before him, much like he had held his oboe in the jungle scene. The pure,
non-diegetic music of the oboe is drowned out by the gunfire of the attackers. The power
of faith and love cannot protect him or the Guarani from the disastrous peril around them.
Father Gabriel is killed, and the cross falls to the dirt. Even though it might appear for a
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moment that violence conquered beauty, it is not so. One the of elder Guarani men lifts
up the fallen cross and continues onwards. Later a young Guarani who escaped the
massacre returns and rescues a violin from the nearby water. These acts of faith and
beauty demonstrate that Father Gabriel’s work in the mission had an immeasurable,
lasting impact on the Guarani.
The cross and the instrument saved by the Guarani symbolize the triumph of
beauty over violence. Father Gabriel’s convictions live on in the surviving Guarani
whose lives he touched. The final lines of the movie, delivered by the emissary from the
Vatican reflect this point well: “But in truth it is I who am dead, and they who live. For as
always, your Holiness, the spirit of the dead will survive in the memory of the living.”