After the martyrdom of one of their own, a Jesuit priest (Jeremy Irons) is sent to the Amazon jungle to bring Christ to the indigenous people and, after converting a stern mercenary (Robert De Niro), finds himself engaging against the Portuguese who have come to exploit the land and cast its people into servitude. Roland Joffe's The Mission contains beautiful cinematography, breathtaking even with great performances from Irons and De Niro and a literate screenplay that doesn't know where to take its story and winds up being muddled and confused.
** 1/2 out of ****
