I have recently watched the movie The Mission in my MMW and English 10 class. The movie portraits the issue between the Jesuits, Spanish, Portuguese, and Guarani Indians in the 1750's. The movie takes place when the Portuguese are about to buy certain parts of South America from the Spanish. The one flaw in this plan is that the Guarani Indians have inhabited the land for centuries. The Portuguese plan to take advantage of these Indians by enslaving them for their own benefit. While in the process of buying the South American territories from Spain a group called the Jesuits were converting Guarani Indians to the Christian faith. This caused problems to the Portuguese because if the Guarani Indians sought sanctuary in one of the Jesuits religious regions, the Portuguese could not in slave the Indians. A court was called to order to asses weather the Jesuit's religious regions would be kept under Portuguese rule as it was under Spanish rule. In the end the court decided that the Jesuit's religious regions would not be kept and the Portuguese would gain control of all the religious regions. This enraged the Guarani Indians and they decided to fight the Portuguese. This revolt was crushed and the Portuguese gained control over all the land they bought and the Jesuits religious regions.
In the movie, The Mission, the Guarani Indians were protected by a set of huge waterfalls. Above the falls there was a plateau on which the Guarani Indians lived upon. This provided the Indians with safety due to the fact that if someone wanted to navigate the path to their home a gigantic obstacle, the falls, laid in their way. Towards the end of the movie, a scene shows the Portuguese climbing up the falls with grappling hooks and ropes. This obstacle shows that even the Portuguese, the owners of the land, had trouble climbing the falls even with their hi-tech equipment. The Guarani Indians were also protected by the Atlantic Ocean too. The reason that the Portuguese or any other foreign country had not already taken the Guarani Indians captive was due to the vast amount of water in their way. This provided the Indians with protection and in a way invisibility too for many years. This great body of water was a huge geographical object that only a few ships were daring enough to cross.
I believe that the Jesuits and the other Europeans who attempted to convert the Guarani Indians were selfish. I think that the Jesuits and the Europeans were selfish because they were imposing their beliefs and ideas into a group of people who maintained their way life for centuries. I understand you may think that the Jesuits weren't selfish when they stayed back to help the Guarani Indians defend themselves and I think that in that moment they were unselfish. The reason I classify the Jesuits as selfish is because maybe if the Jesuits weren't looking to convert the Guarani Indians above the falls, maybe the Portuguese would have never learned the whereabouts of the Guarani Indians. Some things are not meant to change and the spirit and culture of the Guarani Indians was one of them.
Here is a helpful website with a more in depth summary on the movie The Mission: http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/The_Mission_(film)
