had been slightly
re-written and shot by a more capable director, it could have
transcended to a level of greatness few films achieve. It had so much
potential to be a classic of the highest ranks, only to be spoiled by
senseless direction and characters so poorly scripted that it was hard
to care about their inevitable demise. The story has "epic" written all
over it, telling of the tragedy that awaited an indigenous tribe in
South America in 1750 as the imperial powers of Spain and Portugal
swapped territories and therefore priorities for the Indian tribes. The
now nearly extinct Guarani Indians are the focus of
,
converted to Christianity under the Spaniards but at danger of death or
slavery upon the handover of their lands to the Portuguese. Two Jesuits
fight to save a hilltop mission for the tribe, though Jeremy Irons and
Robert De Niro's paths have brought them to their destiny from different
directions and the former decides to use passive prayer to protect the
mission while the latter attempts to mount an ineffective military
defense. The procedural brutality with which the Cardinal of the region,
representing the interests of the Pope, brings about the ultimate
decision eventually leads to a confrontation that will assign all of the
protagonists of the film their meaningless deaths. On the whole,
had spectacular aspects in its favor but also nagging
problems that go well beyond the narrative's depressing conclusion. The
two Jesuits are poorly rendered and De Niro's character is especially
underdeveloped (not to mention the miscasting of the actor). The
confrontation at the end of the picture is almost unintelligible,
offering the audience no sense of clarity or vision that could have
solidified the story's message. Roland Joffe, as much as he tried so
desperately to make
as authentic as possible
(shipping in an entire tribe of extras to his desired region despite the
fact that none had ever seen a movie in their lifetimes), failed to ever
capture the same critical acclaim that had graced
a few years prior, eventually fading into obscurity after a
few unimaginable disasters in the 1990's. On the other hand,
was phenomenal in its auxiliary production values, easily
winning an Academy Award for cinematography with the kind of scenery
rarely seen. Another widely praised element of the film was Ennio
Morricone's Golden Globe and BAFTA-winning, classically-informed, and
highly memorable score.
Most composers' careers are remembered for one defining
score, and for Morricone, despite his much-loved work earlier in his
career for Spaghetti Westerns, this defining work is generally
considered to be
The Mission. So much of what you hear in other
respected composers' music of the coming decade was influenced by this
score that you have to give it due respect even if the film's
challenging atmosphere repulses you. The work is a successful blend of
symphonic romanticism, choral authenticity, and South American
instrumentation, bound together by an extremely attractive harmonic tone
that yields three outstanding primary themes. The beauty of Morricone's
music for
The Mission is tempered by the necessary dissonant
challenges presented by the story, but it is ultimately characterized as
a hopeful and redemptive piece, its themes often reaching high into the
ranges of its performing soloists as a call for peace and guidance. The
employment of various soloists is precisely calculated outside of the
obvious source inspirations, utilizing sounds that perfectly enunciate
the lyrical appeal that Morricone was attempting to achieve. In these
regards, the emphasis on solo flute and oboe in the gorgeous melodic
portions of
The Mission will remind some listeners of George
Delerue's often beautiful approach to similar circumstances. The
embellished flourishes of the flute in "The Mission" in particular will
endear this score to Delerue collectors. Morricone, of course, has
himself never been a stranger to heartbreaking melodies, often enriching
his scores for countless obscure European productions with such
undeniably soothing tones, and even some of the secondary motifs
explored only once in
The Mission could anchor another entire
score by themselves. Of his three major themes for this film, two of
them are inevitably intertwined, and these represent the Guarani Indians
and Irons' character, Father Gabriel. Often considered the film's most
prominent melody is the latter, heard best in the two cues on album
entitled "Gabriel's Oboe." Two interesting structural aspects of this
theme distinguish it. First, Morricone doubles up many of the notes in
its progression, serving the dual purpose of giving the theme a
ponderous spirit and accentuating the simple but pretty harmony in its
constructs. Secondly, he tacks on a final, six-note phrase to the end of
the theme that it could well have done without, but this inclusion
brings both an ethereal sense of hope and additional beauty to the
remainder of the theme. Both may have been inspired by Irons' tinkering
with the instrument. A deliberate tapping of harpsichord or cymbal
underneath this theme is always a pleasant rhythm-setter, giving the
score its only real connection to European sensibilities of the
time.
Heard in its only solo form in "River," the choral
theme for the Indians utilizes well-mixed jungle percussion and chanted
vocals to produce a sound not dissimilar to John Williams' song for
Amistad. The vocals sometimes take a smoother route, a sound
emulated no doubt by Vangelis for
1492: Conquest of Paradise.
Such is the case in "On Earth as It Is in Heaven," the end credits
piece. In this cue and "Vita Nostra," this tribal theme is joined by
Gabriel's theme over the top, first on oboe and then on flute. The
latter instrument in "Vita Nostra" produces the more dynamic sonic range
(sometimes, as at 1:35 in that cue, holding high notes for a whole five
seconds!), and while "On Earth as It Is in Heaven" is the better known
piece, "Vita Nostra" has an arguably superior mix of these primary two
ideas. The vocal performances extend out into a couple of source-like
cues, including "Te Deum Guarani," a short song of lamentation accented
by pan pipes. An interesting aspect of the recording of the ensemble
vocal sequences is the prominence of one or two soprano female voices in
the group that occasionally shine beyond the others' performances,
especially in the end titles piece. One somber reminder of the fate of
the mission and the tribe is "Miserere," a short performance of the
score's third theme by solo boy's voice. Some listeners will be reminded
of Howard Shore's techniques for
The Lord of the Rings in this
cue. It's fitting that "Miserere" closes the listening experience,
because after all is said and done in
The Mission, only the
picturesque waterfalls of the location remain. This third theme indeed
represents the falls and their perpetuity, handled by Morricone with
fluid string layers in almost all of its incarnations. It is this theme
that James Horner combined with a touch of Carl Orff to form his final
sequence in
Glory, though Morricone's version of the same idea is
far more pensive. The theme, highlighted by its delayed plucks on bass
strings and/or timpani taps, is the musical definition of yearning. The
theme inspires De Niro's character's desperate search for redemption in
"Climb" and "Remorse" and accompanies the film's eerie opening sequence
in "Falls" with setting-establishing pan flutes and a brass-accented
crescendo at the end. Its melody is transferred to flute in the somber
but pretty "The Mission" before the final "Miserere" cue confirms the
theme's representation of a melancholy destiny. While this theme
unfortunately does not interact with the other two outside of
coincidental counterpoint, it does feature a slight glimmer of hope in
its string interlude, heard in "Falls" and "The Mission." Together, the
three primary themes do occupy the majority of running time in
The
Mission, well defining the overall work and overshadowing the second
half of the album.
There are a handful of singular ideas throughout the
rest of the score that merit attention, but none is as thoughtful and
palatable on album as the brief piece that Morricone provided for De
Niro's character and his brother, played by Aidan Quinn. In "Brothers,"
the flute in its lower ranges is joined by acoustic guitar for a melody
lovely enough to accompany Gabriel's theme in any compilation;
unfortunately, this theme is by necessity cut short and the guitar is
thrust into a more difficult, forcefully plucked performance of the idea
in "Carlotta." Another theme is explored by Morricone in "Penance,"
though this cue mostly makes use of extremely low woodwinds in a boiling
rhythmic progression that culminates in a few immensely disturbing
crescendos; bassoons wouldn't sound as terrifying again until Shore's
The Lord of the Rings scores. This cue represents perhaps the
most developed of
The Mission's darker half. Indeed, the
listening experience for this score, despite all the positive buzz
deservedly generated by the three primary themes, is not a consistent
one from beginning to end. The orchestral dissonance of "Penance" and
"Refusal," the latter awkwardly employing brass in faint calls to arms,
leads to a sparse set of cues from "Asuncion" to "The Sword" that only
offers a return to harmony briefly in the last cue of that group. The
blurting pan pipes, thumping piano, and other disturbing elements of
these cues, when combined with the obviously problematic "Penance,"
constitute almost half of the entire score and alone restrain the
overall score from obtaining the highest rating from some listeners.
Ultimately,
The Mission is by no means a uniform experience on
album, and some rearrangement will be necessary to collect the superior
harmonic material into an outstanding twenty to thirty-minute
presentation. The effectiveness of even Morricone's darker music for
The Mission is not questioned, and when this fact is taken into
consideration alongside the phenomenal quality of the rest of the score,
it is difficult to justify anything lower than the top rating for the
whole package. The mix of The London Philharmonic Orchestra, the London
Voices, and the ethnic group Incantation (for the light percussive
parts) is well executed, though the pan pipes and solo boy's voice are
at times too pronounced (especially in the relation between "Miserere"
and the rest of the recording). The quality of the 1986 recording in sum
will likely please the buyer of this score on any of its plethora of
international albums (all with identical contents despite different
cover art), though an SACD version of the score was eventually made
available for audiophiles. Both this score and Jerry Goldsmith's
arguably superior
Hoosiers lost the Oscar to Herbie Hancock's
'Round Midnight that year, reason alone to permanently shun that
body's senseless voting habits. This is Morricone at his best, and of
all his failed Oscar bids,
The Mission deserved the award more
than any other.
***** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Ennio Morricone reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.18
(in 11 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.29
(in 10,059 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
