Black Robe
by Bruce Beresford
List Price:
Our Price: $7.31
You Save: $7.67 (51%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $5.84 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Aden Young, August Schellenberg, Lothaire Bluteau, Sandrine Holt, Tantoo CardinalDirector: Bruce Beresford
Brand: BLUTEAU,LATHAIRE
Producer: Brian Moore
Writer: Brian Moore
Producer: Denis Héroux
Producer: Eric Norlen
Producer: Jake Eberts
Producer: Robert Lantos
Producer: Stéphane Reichel
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 101 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-07-08
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: MGM
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- Closed-captioned; Color; Dolby; DVD; Letterboxed; Widescreen; NTSC
Movie Reviews of Black Robe
Movie Review: Beautifully Filmed, Memorably Told
Summary: 5 Stars
Wow, what a fascinating movie and different kind of film It's just beautiful, too, and one those films you hope comes out on Blu-Ray to really show off the cinematography.
Black Robe has the same kind of beautiful and haunting images Terrence Malick's films possess but the director in this case is Bruce Bereford, the man who directed "Driving Miss Daisy" a couple of years before doing this film. "Daisy" also is beautifully-filmed.
Black Robe is not just a piece of art. As great as it is visually, this is a powerful story of a well-intentioned Jesuit priest in the early 17th century who travels to "New France" (upstate New York/French Canadian territory) attempting to convert a few area tribes to Christianity. To unbelievers, that seems pushy but Biblically-speaking it is not. Jesus commanded his followers to do just that (Matt. 28:18-20) , so the priest is only doing what missionaries have done for centuries. He also is a good man, stays strong in his beliefs regardless of his own well-being and is a gentle soul. Kudos to the filmmakers for being fair to him.
The Algonquins and the Hurons are also shown with their beliefs, too, and their cultures which obviously were in contrast to the white European-based priest. All sides are shown fairly in this movie, with both positive and negative traits of all.
I was shocked at a few scenes in here, not expecting them as the film has such a gentle flow to it before anything dramatic happens. We see a few sexual scenes and then some brutal violence. The Hurons, particularly, do not want any invasion of their privacy and culture and are openly hostile to the priest and the Algonquins. The story transforms from a quiet Malick-type "New World" poetic piece to a violent, suspenseful film and the question is, will the "good guys" make it out alive?
The actors in here, perhaps, are not names most people outside Canada are familiar with, including me, but Lothaire Blueteau as Father Laforgue, Aden Young as his assistant "Daniel" and Sandrine Holt as Daniel's Algonguin lover "Anuuka" are all very, very good. All the characters in this film are very credible people, steadfast in their own beliefs and they come across as realistic people. Most films have unreal people with unrealistic dialog....but not in this movie.
Another big plus was the soundtrack: a lush, haunting score throughout.
Without spoiling the ending, or adding political/theological agendas my own, let me just add that if you enjoy a beautiful-looking movie which also has a thoughtful, haunting story with honest characters, you should check this out
Summary of Black Robe
A young Jesuit priest travels to the Canadian wilderness during the 17th century, to minister to the Huron Indians.Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 9-JAN-2007
Media Type: DVD
Forget about Kevin Costner's sun-kissed, water-colored, Oscar-winning Dances with Wolves. Black Robe, which was directed by Bruce Beresford, a director who gave the world the finest film of the early '80s Australian new wave, Breaker Morant, and who continually collides cultures and ethnicity in his films (Mister Johnson, Driving Miss Daisy), matches and surpasses the Costner epic as an expertly crafted, brutal saga of redemption and salvation. In 1634 a young French Jesuit missionary is assigned to trek 1,500 miles through the New France wilderness to a mission settled in Huron Indian country. Black Robe chronicles the journey of Father Laforgue (Lothaire Blutheau) as he leaves his Jesuit brothers and, with the aid of a young translator and guide, Daniel (Aden Young), and eight canoes of Algonquin Indians, moves into the uncompromising Canadian northern territory on a die-hard mission to convert the natives. Mixing elements of Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans and Roland Joffé's The Mission, Beresford offers a restless tale of Laforgue's conflicted faith juxtaposed against the sublime spiritual harmony with the land that the Huron and Algonquin already hold. Black Robe dances to its own drummer and is tuned into the precarious balance between nature's mystery and spirit and the strident, unyielding religious ethic. The cinematography by Peter James is relentlessly cruel and bleak, but it absolutely conveys the obstacles that face the idealistic and blind young priest, who by the end, has faced his own awakening. The film also features one of the late, great composer Georges Delerue's most noble scores. --Paula Nechak
Similar DVD Movies
The Fast Runner (Atanarjuat)Sony; Release date: 2003-01-24; DVD
Best price: $59.37
![1492: Conquest of Paradise aka A Conquista do Paraiso [Import] Image](/images/1492-Conquest-of-Paradise-aka-A-Conquista-do-Paraiso-Import-B000J0UD94-X.jpg)
1492: Conquest of Paradise aka A Conquista do Paraiso [Import]Published: 1992; DVD
Best price: $19.87
Price in other shops:
Incident at Oglala - The Leonard Peltier StoryLions Gate; Release date: 2004-04-20; DVD
Best price: $4.30
Price in other shops:
ThunderheartSONY PICTURES HOME ENT; Release date: 2003-04-24; DVD
Best price: $4.40
Price in other shops:
The OutsiderShowtime Entertainment; Release date: 2003-11-18; DVD
Best price: $8.69
Price in other shops:
Black Robe: A Novelby Brian Moore
Plume; Published: 1997-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.95
Price in other shops:
The Snow WalkerFirst Look Pictures; Release date: 2005-05-31; DVD
Best price: $5.30
Price in other shops:
The New World: The Extended CutNEW Line Home Video; Release date: 2008-10-14; DVD
Best price: $3.46
Price in other shops:
Aguirre, the Wrath of GodFox; Release date: 2000-10-24; Published: 2000-10-01; DVD
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops:
The Mission (Two-Disc Special Edition)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2003-05-13; DVD
Best price: $9.47
Price in other shops: