Black Robe
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Movie Reviews of Black Robe
Movie Review: "Do You Love Us Black Robe?" ~ Faith And Love Are Not Always Enough
Summary: 5 Stars
Set in New France, Quebec in the year 1634, director Bruce Beresford delivers a powerful and cinematically gorgeous film dealing with the cultural devastation wrought upon an indigenous culture by well meaning but somewhat naive and narrow-minded Jesuit missionaries evangelizing the Canadian Northwest.
The story centers around a young Jesuit missionary, Father Laforgue (Lothaire Blutheau), who is sent on an ardous 1,500 mile journey into Huron territory to aid in the task of converting the Huron people to Christ and his Church. Escorted by a small group of Algonquin Indians and a young Frenchman named Daniel (Aden Young), a long and dangerous path lie ahead.
The cultural differences between Laforgue and the Algonquins' are pronounced and animosity towards the Priest is almost immediate. They begin to question his "strange ways" and his dark attire and wonder whether he is a demon sent to destroy them. Instead of addressing him as Father they refer to him as "Black Robe."
Along the way Father Laforgue slowly and begrudgingly begins to understand and appreciate the Indians as people and not just potential converts, but cannot reconcile their spiritual beliefs with his own. His inner doubt and turmoil are in stark contrast with the natural beauty of the land and the communal, harmonious spirit displayed by the Algonquin's accompanying him.
Father Laforgue may survive the dangers and hardships of the wilderness, but will his Christian faith survive the challenge of cultural diversity and the honest and open nature of those he hopes to save? The people who ask him the all important question, "Do you love us Black Robe?"
Joining Lothaire Blutheau is a wonderful cast which includes: Aden Young (Daniel), August Schellenberg (Chomina) and the incredibly beautiful Sandrine Holt (Annuka). The film also contains an enchanting soundtrack by the late composer George Delerue.
Movie Review: Beautiful Tragedy
Summary: 5 Stars
Bruce Bereford's Black Robe was easily one of the best "bleak realistic" films of the 1980's. It's powerful on many levels.
There are amazing performances all around here, but the then (and still fairly) relatively unknown Lothaire Blutheau hits absolutely all the right notes in his performance as the young priest, Father Laforgue. Strong with all of the unique confidence that possessed only by youth, Laforgue slowly undergoes one of those classic dark journeys of the soul wherein everything, including one's belief system - previously seen as unwavering - is called into question when exposed to a different world entirely. One can actually feel what he feels here.
Aden Young gives an equally remarkable, if smaller performance as Laforgue's young, idealistic guide who quickly is smitten by the ways of Algonquin. An odd but strong friendship - an almost mutual admiration - between the two young men develops but which falls sour and which nearly costs Laforuge his life.
Visually, the movie offers astonishing images of the Canadian landscape, simply beautiful even when stark and covered with ice and snow.
Beresford makes certain everything works together perfectly here, from the gorgeous cinematography and acting, to the gorgeous score of Georges Delerue who deftly combines Native American rhythms and sounds with his ancient Catholic-tinged harmonies creating a soundscape as aurally powerful as the film is visually.
The film will resonate strongly for those who enjoy the controversial aspects between various faiths - (and a little of commerce) and remind more than a few of The Mission, whose protagonists shared similar hopes with similar results.
Not an easy film to watch as its beauty is often in its brutal images, but beautiful and unforgettable it is.
Movie Review: I watch this film whenever I need to clear my head.
Summary: 5 Stars
Black Robe pulls you in. You don't feel like you're watching a movie. It flows like real life. I can't say enough about this movie. I'd say it's my favourite film ever. I read one review from a left-wing persepctive that claimed that BR was "neo-colonial propaganda". This person is an idiot. BR portrays the Natives in the same way it does the French: mostly as ignorant, superstitious brutes. La Forgue's fanatical belief in Catholic dogma at the most irrational moments is identical to the Indians' faith in Mestegoit, the Montaignes' shaman. The Europeans who killed the Indians weren't any more savage than the Natives they exterminated; they were just better armed. The Natives were killing each other long before Europeans showed up. BR captures that.
Other examples are the quick contrasting scenes that cut between Champlain and the Algonquin chief Chumina putting on their ceremonial clothes before meeting to negotiate the escort of father La Forgue to the Huron. Another is the scene where La Forgue tells Daniel that the natives are "childish" because they believe in Algonquin religion and Daniel replies that their beliefs are no less "childish" than the Christian belief that in heaven we sit on clouds and look at God.
This film isn't about colonialism. It's about the human condition. The message is: modern man is as savage on a global scale as aboroginal man was on a tribal scale. How are the Iroquois who tortured and raped father LaForgue and the chief's daughter different from the Iraqis who behead contractors, or the Americans who deport prisoners to countries for torture? That is the real message of BR. Take this film seriously.
Movie Review: A film to study and treasure
Summary: 5 Stars
Twenty years from now, film students will continue to appreciate the skill by which Bruce Beresford and his team realized Brian More's novel on the physical and spitual manisfestations of man and environment. I bought the VHS as soon as it was available and have analyzed portions of the film shot by shot, marveling at the almost symphonic mastery of theme and structure. Now I enjoy the DVD regularly and am constantly loaning it to friends.
I would commend three scenes as indicators of the more subtle qualities of this film: (1) The scene where priest Black Robe flagellates himself when he finds himself becoming excited watching others having sex. Note that he does this under a bent spruce about to fall into the river, a symbol of abnormality (compared to other "trees"). (2) The handling of the sun--the Native Americans' source of spirituality and life--as Chief Chomina at last approaches the island of his visions. The whole sequence on and off the island (remeniscent of a famous Boecklin painting) is exquisitely structured. (3) The deliberately ambiguous ending, the cross in front of the sun. Is it bringing light to the world, or blotting it out?
One final note. Parts of the film were photographed in an estuarial portion of the Saguenay near the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 100s of miles from the supposed route to Lake Ontario. The mountains are too high, but appropriately stunning, and the tidal fluctuations are apparent on shore from time to time.
Movie Review: Oustanding feature!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the most realistic depiction of Native Americans I have seen in the wide screen. The movie sets in the year 1634, roughly 20 years after the founding of Quebec and 14 years after the landing of the Mayflower. Samuel de Champlain is still the governor of the precariously held French settlement.
Historical background: Champlain had earlier accompanied a party of Huron and/or Abenaki in an incursion south, along the shores of the lake he named after himself. They came across a party of Iroquois near today's Ticonderoga and, in the ensuing battle, Champlain shot the leader of the Iroquois party, thus deciding the encounter. The Iroquois never forgot and from that moment on they became rivals of both the French and the northern Indians.
The movie: It is in that context that the Jesuits decide to send another priest to the Huron Mission, upstream the Saint Lawrence, along the shores of Lac Frontenac (now lake Ontario).
The savage beauty of the landscapes is breathtaking. The cruelty of the Canadian winter is powerfully conveyed in all its splendor. The movie makes a very successful effort to portray the Native Americans as they were: bound by their own set of rules, fears, and beliefs, totally alien to Europeans but not so to the young French-Canadian. The end of the movie (which I will not describe here) was a direct consequence of M. Champlain shot at Ticonderoga.
This is a film that touches the soul.