The Mission

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Hey I had a question. I have seen the movie "The Mission" many times and now it is coming out on Blu-Ray Oct. 15, 2010, but before I buy it on Blu-Ray I thought to myself is this movie based on a true story or fiction? Anybody who has seen the movie please respond. Thanks

Gabe

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

It is impossible to draw the tyres of a b-17 and bring them to life.

Now seriously, as distant relative of the Robert DeNiro character (if i remeber the family archives it was my great great grandfather's brother) I can say that.... okey. Just had to make that joke since both of us share the same surname sorry.

Now truly seriously, i dont know, but probably the story of the jesuits and the guaraní indians is true, but has been dramatically embellished to appeal the spectator's feelings. Probably the main characters are made up, or just based on one or several real persons.

In other words, the History could be true, but the story could be not.

There must be info about this in google

This is what i found on wikipedia:

Historical basis

The Mission is based on events surrounding the Treaty of Madrid in 1750, in which Spain ceded part of Jesuit Paraguay to Portugal. The film's narrator, "Altamirano", speaking in hindsight in 1758, corresponds to the actual Andalusian Jesuit Father Luis Altamirano, who was sent by Jesuit Superior General Ignacio Visconti to Paraguay in 1752 to transfer territory from Spain to Portugal. He oversaw the transfer of seven missions south and east of the Río Uruguay, that had been settled by Guaranis and Jesuits in the 1600s. As compensation, Spain promised each mission 4,000 pesos, or fewer than 1 peso for each of the circa 30,000 Guaranis of the seven missions, while the cultivated lands, livestock, and buildings were estimated to be worth 7-16 million pesos. The film's climax is the Guarani War of 1754-1756, during which historical Guaranis defended their homes against Spanish-Portuguese forces implementing the Treaty of Madrid. For the film, a re-creation was made of one of the seven missions, São Miguel das Missões.[2]

Father Gabriel's character is loosely based on the life of Paraguayan saint and Jesuit Roque González de Santa Cruz.

The waterfall setting of the film suggests the combination of these events with the story of older missions, founded between 1610-1630 on the Paranapanema River above the Guaíra Falls, from which Paulista slave raids forced Guaranis and Jesuits to flee in 1631. The battle at the end of the film evokes the eight-day Battle of Mbororé in 1641, a battle fought on land as well as in boats on rivers, in which the Jesuit-organized, firearm-equipped Guarani forces stopped the Paulista raiders.[3]