It has a certain density in the aesthetics that illustrate the traditions of an indigenous culture in a state of resistance, but unfortunately, its narrative lacks hook when it shows its predictable conflict over colonialism. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 6/10 | Nov 13, 2024

Even with lulls, it’s impossible to disregard the music, which is not only a factor of communication between the disparate peoples (and a point of humanization), but also a stirring, striking link between major components of the story.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jul 20, 2024

“De Niro is such an intuitive and impulsive performer, and what I think Roland Joffé gets out of him in this performance ... is restraining those impulses and … fury.”

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 13, 2023

But the sum of these parts is a formless ramble. Any interesting ideas get lost and director Roland Joffe's poor judgement in having real screaming babies piled up in mud and rain is a misstep that wipes out any goodwill toward the snail's pace story.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 3, 2023

Despite Strong and De Niro conquering the film as a two-hander, the remaining cast does not live up to The Mission's leads.

| Original Score: B | Jan 14, 2022

...a contemplation of man's inhumanity to man, the exploitation of indigenous people and the way that democratic and religious institutions have, deliberately or not, supported that process...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 17, 2021

The film is an exposé of a time when Western cinema was struggling to film stories of indigenous peoples in modes other than unintentionally stereotypical and condescending.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 10, 2018

...a little too pious for its own good. Be that as it may, the movie's heart is in the right place.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Dec 14, 2010

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 30, 2009

The two principal actors, Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons, work hard to animate their parts. But there is little to do. The Mission is probably the first film in which De Niro gives a bland, uninteresting performance.

| Mar 26, 2009

Joffe's pseudo-epic about slave trading and missionaries in South America is attractive to look at but distorted and anachronistic.

| Original Score: C+ | Jan 7, 2009

| Original Score: A- | Oct 29, 2008

A near-masterpiece. De Niro is excellent.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 5, 2008

Atmospheric, fascinating drama set in deep jungle with strong De Niro and Irons.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 17, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 22, 2006

The Mission manages to be both magnificent and curiously uninvolving, a buddy movie played in soutanes.

| Feb 9, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 27, 2004

Simultaneously slick and sloppy....For all of The Mission's back-to-nature trappings, it's actually a perfect film for the Reagan-and-Thatcher era that produced it.

| Original Score: C- | May 2, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 7, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 17, 2003