Black Robe

Did you ever wonder what kind of person would, in the seventeen century, travel thousands of miles across the wilderness of North America to try to convert the natives to Christianity?  This film may be the closest thing to finding out that one will see.

The movie begins in colonial French Quebec in 1634, where the Jesuit priests need someone to take over a mission to the Huron Indians.  They send Father Laforgue (Lothaire Bluteau), a young, dedicated, but inexperienced priest, who must travel fifteen hundred miles by canoe to the mission just as winter is beginning.  The Father takes Daniel (Aden Young) with him, a young man with aspirations to be a priest but who is attracted to a Algonquin woman named Annuka (Sandrine Holt).  They set off, guided by a tribe of Algonquins.

It soon becomes apparent that the priest and the natives are completely baffled by each other.  The priest is motivated by his otherworldly religion.  Father Laforgue says, "If they aren't changed, they are damned forever.  They share everything, they plan nothing, they think only of the moment."  A priest who returned to France says, "The savages live in utter darkness.  We must convert them.  What more glorious task?"  The hands and face of this priest had been disfigured by his torture by the natives.  

The Algonquins, on the other hand, are fascinated by the European's technology.  They sit in church watching a clock, astounded when it strikes the hour.  They are amazed by writing and by firearms, even though their arrows are as effective for killing as the single-shot muskets.  The French do not hesitate to take advantage of this awe to convince the natives that their ways are superior.  However, when the priest is travelling across the wilderness, it is clear that the native culture is better adapted to these conditions than the French.

These natives are not the noble savages, though.  During the trip, the group is attacked by a band of warriors, and many are killed.  The survivors, including the priest, Daniel, Annuka, and her father, are captured and taken to a village that is built like a fortress surrounded by a wall of formidable spiked poles.  They are tortured while the warrior leaders debate the best way to kill them.  The prisoners escape, and the priest eventually arrives alone at the Huron mission.  He finds that the Huron villagers are being devastated by a fever, probably a disease brought by the French.  Some of the natives allow themselves to be baptized because they believe it will cure them.

This 1991 film, directed by Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy) is remarkably realistic, showing scenery and settings that transport the viewer to the seventeenth century.  It is a thought-provoking examination of the conflict arising from the European exploration of the Americas and the role of religion in it.  It is not for the squeamish, since there are several intense scenes of violence and sexuality, and it is rated R.  The movie is available on video.  

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