Machiavelli's Beliefs In The Film, The Mission

The movie The Mission brought to light many of the issues that the developing world has faced in the past and continues to face today. The indigenous people of Paraguay and Southern Brazil, the Guarani, faced terrifying encounters with the powerful European colonizers during the period of European colonialism. Many innocent people on both sides of the battle lost their lives. The Jesuits were a Christian missionary group that brought the Good News of Jesus Christ, all the while helping to defend the indigenous people by respecting their culture and human dignity, also referred to as “inculturation”. The Jesuit presence paved the way for later ideas such as liberation theology and the post-colonial theory. The Commonweal article, “What We Can and Cannot Fix: Rewatching The Mission prompts viewers to reassess the film and notice other possible issues that were related to the Jesuit’s presence.

James Seager's article The Mission and Historical Missions: Film and the Writing of History and Jesuit Ruiz de Montoya's The Spiritual Conquest journal entries allows us as historians to gain insight of the actuality of event that occurred in Guarani’s community with the Spanish and Portuguese occupiers; which the the movie The Mission loosely portrays. Seager’s work makes consistent point on how the movie misrepresent the Guarani people, by taking action to point-out actual historical events versus that fictitious events in the movie. Montoya’s entries demonstrates some historically accurate, but it is not a credible source itself; as it is shrouded in the Jesuits own bias. The purpose of this journal entry is to elaborate on how these two

Niccolo Machiavelli was born in the city of Florence, on May Third, 1469. He came to power and was exiled by the Medici family. While he was exiled, he wrote The Prince to inform other leaders how to maintain power unlike himself. In his signature book, Machiavelli explained how a leader must always have war on his mind, never be hated, and be surrounded by truthful ministers. Leaders who shared a similar mentality as Machiavelli are Hongwu and Suleyman because of his harshness with government officials, and him being a patron of the arts, respectively.

The Mission was filmed in 1986, was directed by Roland Joffé and written by Robert Bolt. The film, set in the year 1758, depicts the story of the building of the missionaries in South America. The film stars an award-winning cast and most of the filming locations are historically accurate (e.g., Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil). However, the movie presents an unrealistic portrayal of the three main groups, those groups being the native Guaranís, the Jesuits and the Catholic Church (represented by the Cardinal). In the film, the Guaranís are ready to abandon their beliefs when father Gabriel and the Jesuits arrive. At the same time, the Jesuits are portrayed as gentle, peaceful men who care about the Guaranís,

Machiavelli's argument, that a ruler should not be inclined to carry out the actions that the people are led to believe that the ruler is carrying out, is false. If the rulers actions have no adverse affect on the public, there would be no reason to to keep these actions secret. If a ruler's actions have an adverse affect on the public, they will ultimately be revealed; the public should and will know.

First off, Jeremy Irons plays Father Gabriel, a Spanish Jesuit priest, who has invested his life in the conversion of the Guaraní people. In the film he successfully converts a group living above Iguazu Falls near the modern-day Paraguay-Brazil-Argentinian border. Irons was convincing, but he seemed to lack real, bold emotion at the appropriate moments. In other words, he didn’t appear to be very invested in the movie’s story. In addition, he appeared to take on an overall “nice guy” personality that was hard to break when the script required him to be stern. Robert De Niro, who played Rodrigo Mendoza, a former slave trader, conveyed his character excellently. De Niro is a versatile actor known to play a variety of roles, which is apparent in this film, where he is able to be two different characters in one. At the beginning he appears almost heartless towards the Guaraní people. For example, he has no trouble capturing and killing them. Not long into the movie, however, his character does a complete hundred-and-eighty-degree-turn and becomes a merciful and sympathetic man, devoted to the Native Americans he used to sell for a living. De Niro is able to convey this change very well. There is one more actor worth mentioning: Ray McAnally. McAnally plays the Church’s representative who must make the impossible decision of whether to keep the Jesuit missions under the protection of the church or leave them to the Portuguese. McAnally does a great job representing the mental and emotional strife that his character

All animals experience fear - an overwhelmingly disturbing force of the mind that has the power to sway, distort and rupture the conventions of the psyche. Any animal incapable of fear would have been hard pressed to survive, regardless of its size, speed, or other attributes. Fear alerts us to dangers that threaten our well-being and sometimes our very lives. Sensing fear, we respond by running away, by hiding, or by preparing to ward off the danger. The concept of fear in political terms was first brought into light by Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, who was an Italian Renaissance historian, politician, diplomat, philosopher, humanist, and writer. He has often been called the founder of modern political science. He was for many years a senior official in the Florentine Republic, with responsibilities in diplomatic and military affairs. He also wrote comedies, carnival songs, and poetry. He wrote his most renowned work The Prince (Il Principe) in 1513 during the turbulent days of the Renaissance Medici’s, as a set of pragmatic instructions to a new prince on how to gain and retain power. The originality of his ideas has been challenged and shown to go back at least to the Athenians, yet the influence of Machiavelli 's words still rings around the world.

When viewing The Mission, there were some similarities that lined up with what we were learning in class, but much of it was not historically accurate. The movie takes place in South America where a Jesuit priest is there trying to convert the Guarani Indians. The native Indians, do not take this well and they tie the priest to a cross and push him overall a waterfall. Then, Father Gabriel arrives to continue the work on teaching the word of Christ to the Indians. When he arrives they appear but he takes out his instrument and starts to play music. This goes over well and he goes with them. Viewers are also introduced to Rodrigo Mendoza who is a slave trader. He takes the Guarani Indians to the town of Asuncion and trades them into slavery

He wanted to create a society of peace between the Natives, Spanish, and Portuguese and to convert the Natives of San Carlos to Christians. Father Gabriel represents a faithful Christian in the changes that he made on the lives of others. This could be seen in his first approach with the Guaraní Natives who lived on the territory of the waterfall. He was able to earned the hostile Native’s trust by playing for them a solo with his oboe, using music as a way of communication. It is here that the Natives came to the mercy of God and short live the mercy of man.

The film “The Mission” released in 1986 is a fictional story with a historical underlining. Several of the characters are based off of historical figures. While certain scenes represent historical events. The film is about the Jesuits’ work and how the mission of the Jesuits was to, “spread Catholic ideas through teaching… (and) missionary work” (pg1.) The film does more than just apply history; it shows us how far humans will go for power. Power back then was to expand as far as possible, the more land you had to more power you had. The power here is Spain and Portugal looking to enslave the indigenous people, take over their land, and expand. This film makes us not only look at the historical context which it contains, but also our

I, Father Gabriel, chose the best moral decision because I was able to perform God’s teaching for the Guarani Tribe well. The day was as chilling as the breath of death and I was sleeping in the wilderness. God came up to me and revealed his truth and missions. I was hesitating to go out and deliver the world of God to the people, but God’s spirit was upon me. After traveling days and nights, I got in South America. The people were nice and welcoming, so I didn't have much problems to spread christianity in the region. I present the love of God to the people and they didn’t have problems to accept it. My bond with people was as sturdy as an oax, Which led me to build a church for the Guarani Tribe. The church helped the Guarani people to grow

playwright, and poet. Niccolo Machiavelli’s views of human nature strongly influenced his recommendations for governing. By nature Machiavelli’s cynical regard towards the nature of man were shaped by his observations of the Medici family and by his victimization at the hands of the powerful.

When I was growing up my parents always instilled in me the value of being truthful and doing something to the best of your abilities. I remember when we were in Mexico my dad would tell me, “hijo no importa lo que hagas, con que siempre le eches ganas y seas veraz”. I wouldn’t really understand what he meant until we had been living for some time in Hayward. Roughly translated he meant that it wouldn’t matter what I did with my life as long as I put all my effort in achieving my goals and dreams while staying humble and true. As we see with Machiavelli, the latter didn’t have as much value in his philosophy as the first. Machiavelli believed that the ends justified the means, may I add to some extent he was right. In reality the result of

“Freedom means you are obstructed in living your life as you choose. Anything less is a form of slavery,” (Wayne Dyer). Independence is hard to acquire, it comes at a cost. Back in time, and even still today, many ethnic groups aren’t entitled to freedom. The movie “The Mission”, by Roland Joffe, is a prime example of how one is deprived of their culture and freedom and is forced to fight so that their family and friends can obtain their independence. The movie takes place in 1986, in the middle of South America. Father Gabriel, the head priest, travels to the land of the Guarani in attempt to convert them to Christianity. He succeeds and creates a mission upon their land. He works to build the mission with the help of Rodrigo Mendoza, a former slave trader and current priest, but is interrupted when slave traders from Spain and Portugal petition to His Eminence, the head church official from Rome, to get rid of the treaty that forbids them from capturing a Native American if a Jesuit is working on a mission. His Eminence decides to get rid of all the missions, including the Guarani tribes homeland, and allow slave traders to take them for slave labor. The Guarani decide they would rather fight than becoming slaves. They are assisted by Father Gabriel, Rodrigo, and other priests. The Portuguese invade their mission shortly after wiping out most of the population. This movie was extremely devastating but also extremely educating movie. Although it has some flaws, this movie

While the movie “The Mission” is placed around the year 1750 AD, the Jesuit organization had been working long before that having been founded in 1534 AD by an ex-soldier turned Spanish priest named Ignatius de Loyola. In their beginning, the Jesuits were traveling priests spreading the word, as we see in “The Mission” when Gabriel’s mission went to the Guarani and taught them about Christianity. In some places they were seen as threats to a person's religion and land (since the Europeans usually followed close behind them), and in some places they were seen as teachers and scientists. Regardless of what a land thought of them, the Jesuits went wherever they could to spread Christianity and many of them lost their lives in painful ways.