The Mission (Amazon Exclusive) [Blu-ray]

The Mission (Amazon Exclusive) [Blu-ray] Review

"The Mission" is, like 1984's "The Bounty", one of a select few eighties films that is far from forgotten, but still remains somewhat underrated by modern film fans nonetheless. I was attracted to both on DVD years ago because of their incredible cast list, and was amazed to find both are among the finest films released that decade. "The Mission" stars Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons, and Liam Neeson in a deeply compelling and visually stunning tale of a Jesuit missionary trying to indoctrinate natives in South America during the mid-1700s. A detailed synopsis can be found elsewhere, so for the purposes of brevity I'm going to focus on the transfer and special features.

Only mere moments into the film I was already impressed with the gorgeous transfer. I've watched the DVD recently and this is a significant upgrade in terms of image quality. Fine detail is overall excellent and the colors are much more vibrant. Quite simply, it both looks and sounds absolutely wonderful. With certain catalog titles I've found that the Blu doesn't offer the "best possible quality", but rather the "best available quality", for various reasons. In the case of "The Mission", I feel we are truly presented with the best possible quality. I didn't notice any blatant instances of artificial enhancement or otherwise distracting errors during the film. I'd give the transfer an easy 4.5 out of 5.

The back of the case indicates that all of the features from the DVD have been ported over to the Blu, which includes: a commentary track by director Roland Joffe, the hour-long vintage documentary "Omnibus", and the theatrical trailer. Joffe's commentary is par for the course, he makes some curious observations and tells some interesting anecdotes. The "Omnibus" documentary is fascinating and nice to see here, but it is unfortunately presented in standard definition and it's looking seriously rough. As in, old VHS tape rough. Still, it's well worth watching, because it functions not just as a making-of piece but provides insight into how the film crew interacted with the Waunana Indians. Unfortunately, I simply could not locate the theatrical trailer on the disc.

It would've been nice to have seen a contemporary piece on the film, much like the one the "Last of the Mohicans" Blu-Ray received, but this is something of a niche title and so the exclusion of such is understandable. In summation, the image quality of the documentary is lamentable, and they either forgot to include or maliciously hid the theatrical trailer, but the film itself looks crystal clear beautiful. In the end, that's why you're interested in this disc to begin with. "The Mission" comes highly recommended.

Audio - DTS-HD Master Audio: English 5.1 & Dolby Digital: French 2.0
Subtitles - English SDH, French, Spanish

The Mission (Amazon Exclusive) [Blu-ray] Overview

Sweeping and visually resplendent, The Mission is a powerful action epic about a man of the sword (Robert DeNiro) and a man of the cloth (Jeremy Irons) who unite to shield a South American Indian tribe from brutal subjugation by 18th-century colonial empires. It reunites key talents behind The Killing Fields: co-producer David Puttnam, director Roland Joffe and cinematographer Chris Menges.

Winner of the 1986 Cannes Film Festival Best Picture Award, the film earned seven Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture) and won a Best Cinematography Oscar. Robert Bolt's thoughtful screenplay and Ennio Morricone's rich score won Golden Globe Awards. The Mission is screen storytelling that weaves a haunting spell.

The Mission (Amazon Exclusive) [Blu-ray] Specifications

Roland Joffé (The Killing Fields) directs this fuzzy effort at a David Lean-like epic without David Lean's sense of emotional proportion. Lean's most important screenwriting collaborator, Robert Bolt, in fact wrote The Mission, which concerns a Jesuit missionary (Jeremy Irons) who establishes a church in the hostile jungles of Brazil and then finds his work threatened by greed and political forces among his superiors. Robert De Niro is briefly effective as a callous soldier who kills his own brother and then turns to Irons's character to oversee his penance and conversion to the clergy. The narrative and dramatic forces at work in this movie should be more stirring and powerful than they are--the problem being that Joffé is too removed from them to allow us in. --Tom Keogh

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Oct 15, 2010 11:15:08