Black Robe
|
Our Price: $35.98 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $4.45 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Black Robe
Movie Review: a very rare film!
Summary: 5 Stars
Excellent, excellent film. This is the kind of historical film I always wish for--no burden of the overblown presence of the established ego of a major star (yeah, like stated above, get lost Kevin Costner), an attempt to show what was possibly, or even probably, the actual mentality of the people of the age, and a real attempt to avoid bias and censorship on any side. It's hard to believe that the filmakers could even raise the funding for a film like this, but I guess riding on the semi-success of the De Niro-burdened "The Mission," and on Bruce Bereford's directorial reputation, there was a rare moment in movie industry history when the dollars could be aquired to back a film with this type of integrity. The film shows with expert adroitness the difficulty of belief on the brutal landscape of physical reality. Underlying the conflicts and resolutions throughout is the unrelenting threat of suffering-induced skepticism. The major characters in this film are ethically and spiritually anchored on very very frayed, but repeatedly resilient tethers held in place by the force of will. Whether these tethers should or will snap is always the question. A marvelously spent hour and 41 minutes. Don't miss it. Yes, there are a few moments which may be very difficult for the squeamish.Movie Review: Tragedy in the Pines
Summary: 5 Stars
It is a commonplace that Black Robe is the thinking man's (or the historian's) Dancing with Wolves. And so it is. I have not myself seen a better or bleaker vision of a great culture's interaction (that is, inevitably, invasion) of a warrior culture since the book "Fatal Encounter," set in the European invasion of the South Pacific. Tacitus did the same job on the Roman interaction with the Germans--the story being much the same.
Thus Black Robe goes a world beyond "PC." The French "invader" is a priest of passionate sincerity and courage. The French "higher-ups" believe, as why should they not, in the civilisation they are, with great difficulty, bringing. The Indians are not villainous (though sometimes very cruel); nor, in the end, are they either more or less foolish than the French in the maintainence of their own culture. The one tribe truly converted by the young priest, now dead, is destroyed by unconverted tribes. This was not hard to predict. Nor was the "conquest" of all the tribes by the French.
As a bonus, this is not a part of American history (the powers being French and Jesuit) familiar to many Americans. And the scenery is to die for.
Movie Review: Into the heart of Canada
Summary: 5 Stars
Based on Brian Moore's novel of the same name (Moore also wrote the screenplay), it's about a French Jesuit (played by Lothaire Bluteau) who travels to the interior of Canada to convert the Hurons. With him go an Algonquin family as guides and a young French translator (Aden Young). It's a clash of cultures, with Bluteau trying to convince his Indian companions to accept baptism so their souls will enter Paradise after death, and the Indians thinking he's some kind of demon. Filmed on location in Canada in winter, we are offered scenes of stark beauty, alternated with scenes of stomach-churning brutality; director Bruce Beresford, to his great credit, depicts the Indians honestly and unflinchingly (he shows them torturing their prisoners, for example). Although Bluteau comes to respect the spiritual ways of the Indians, he is martyred for the church. The ending is very climactic (it's even more so in the book). The movie is powerful and intelligent, and sticks with you a long time after viewing it. Definitely worth a watch.
Movie Review: Blackrobe
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the most powerful films I have ever seen. No stars and a Canadian film, so it never got big box office. The encounter between Christian missionaries and Native people I have never before seen so senstively told. There are no bad guys. It neither glorifies Christian missionaries nor does it romanticize the lives of the Native people, something "Dances with Wolves" does.
If you want a film that says the Native people were living in a kind of Eden that was contaminated by the Europeans; or if you want to see how benighted the Indians were before they were saved by the Gospel, this is not your kind of movie. But if you want to see character development on so many levels, to see the goodness and evil that can exist simultaneously within us, to see people struggle to find each other in the midst of misunderstanding and cultural presuppositions, this is well worth your viewing time. Plus, the action is exciting and the scenery is incredible.
Movie Review: A Raw and Compelling Glimpse at Reality
Summary: 5 Stars
No one ever said that living in sixteenth-century Canada was easy, but the brutal reality of that fact is driven home with subtle and perceptive craftsmanship in this film. Historical fact is frequently a casualty in films attempting to tread the fine line between fact and fiction, but Black Robe treads this line unerringly, and brings into sharp focus a saga whose seeds spawn a tragedy that will play out on the North American continent over two eventful centuries. It contains a sensitive and earnest portrayal of Indians, an honest portrayal of the French colonization effort, a look at the breathtaking and unforgiving environment in which their saga played out, and a real effort to present the whole affair in a reasonably accurate historical manner. This showcases many of the elements that made Dances With Wolves so compelling, but in a different, but and in many ways equally appealing, venue.