Screenplay: The Mission

Overview
Set in 18th-century South America, "The Mission" follows Jesuit priests who establish a network of missions among the Guaraní people, seeking to protect indigenous communities from slavers and colonial exploitation. Robert Bolt's screenplay frames a sweeping moral drama that juxtaposes the quiet, sacramental world of the missions with the brutal realities of imperial ambition and statecraft. The film is driven by both intimate spiritual concern and the harsh calculus of political power, creating an emotional and ethical conflict that plays out on a grand, often tragic scale.
Bolt's script pairs lyricism with moral urgency, crafting characters whose personal journeys illuminate larger questions about authority, conscience, and the costs of compromise. The lush Amazonian setting and Ennio Morricone's evocative score heighten the sense of sacredness surrounding the missions, while the encroaching threat of European colonial armies brings a grim, inexorable momentum toward confrontation. The screenplay charts how faith and redemption are tested when spiritual commitments collide with geopolitical realities.

Plot and Characters
The narrative centers on Father Gabriel, a patient and charismatic Jesuit who gently wins the trust of a Guaraní community by playing a simple oboe melody that becomes a kind of signal and sanctuary. Opposite him stands Rodrigo Mendoza, a once-prosperous mercenary and slave trader whose violent past drives him toward self-imposed exile and penance. After a personal crisis of conscience, Mendoza seeks absolution and a place among the mission community, his arc becoming the story's moral backbone as he wrestles with guilt, identity, and the possibility of redemption through service.
As the missions grow into a flourishing, self-sustaining society, their existence draws political attention. A legally binding treaty between colonial powers redraws territorial lines and suddenly places the Guaraní lands under the authority of hostile colonial interests that view the missions as obstacles to expansion and economic exploitation. Church emissaries and imperial officials hold talks far removed from the jungle, and the decisions they make reveal a clash between pastoral responsibility and diplomatic expediency. The priests find themselves caught between obedience to hierarchical authority and loyalty to the people they serve.

Themes and Resolution
Bolt's screenplay interrogates the nature of sacrifice and the limits of institutional power. It asks whether spiritual authority can withstand political compromise, and whether redemption requires withdrawal, confrontation, or martyrdom. Father Gabriel represents a Christlike dedication to nonviolent ministry and cultural respect, while Mendoza embodies a more conflicted path toward atonement that culminates in a willingness to defend the community by force. Together they offer divergent responses to injustice that illuminate the complexity of moral choice.
The climax brings the moral and military consequences of imperial policy to a head: the missions are ordered to be dismantled and a military force is sent to enforce the treaty, resulting in tragic loss and a final reckoning for those who would protect the Guaraní. The screenplay leaves a haunting image of collapsed ideals and the human cost of political compromise, asking whether spiritual integrity can survive in a world governed by power. Through rich character work and a mournful, majestic atmosphere, Bolt's story remains a powerful exploration of faith, conscience, and the tragic collision of spiritual conviction with the imperatives of empire.