The Mission Movie Essay

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The Mission is a movie that portrays the events that surround the implementation of the Treaty of Madrid in 1750. This treaty allowed the Portuguese to invade farther west in South America, and therefore take over the Jesuit missions land and capture the aboriginals and enslave them. The Jesuit missions goal was to convert the Aboriginals into Catholics and make them more knowledgeable about the outside world. The Mission depicts this situation accurately, by telling the story of a Spanish Jesuit priest named Father Gabriel. Father Gabriel goes into the wilderness of South America to start a mission and convert the Guarani Indians into Catholics, after the previous priest was attacked by them and nailed to a cross and thrown into the river…show more content…
It can also be seen through the way the priests tried to protect the aboriginals land and safety in both historical contexts and in the movie. Lastly, the realistic portrayal can be seen in the way the aboriginals tried to protect themselves against those who they thought were threatening. The Spanish conquistadors did not take the aboriginals feelings or situations into account when making any decision that would affect them. This is apparent throughout the entire movie and in many primary sources. For example, in the movie The Mission, Rodrigo Mendoza and other Spanish conquistadors went into the jungle where the Guaranis and many other aboriginal tribes lived and captured them to become slaves in neighboring plantations to colonize the country. This shows that the conquistadors did not respect the aboriginals because they invaded their land, captured them and treated them as if they were property instead of people. This can also be seen in the movie when the Treaty of Madrid is being debated about and no one discusses the situation with the aboriginals to see how they feel about situation at hand. Instead they ask the priests to come and talk

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