The Clash Of Religion In Bruce Beresford's 'Laforgue'

Submitted By frankyi
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First of all ,I think this is a movie about religion. Meanwhile, I am not familiar with that ,so I hope that if I make some mistakes, please forgive me. This film’s director Bruce Beresford's abiding fascination with the clash of cultures is apparent in this adaptation of Brian Moore's novel of a Jesuit missionary who leaves France in 1634 to bring the word of Jesus to the Huron tribe of rugged northern Quebec. The film, which stars Lothaire Bluteau as LaForgue, casts aside the revisionist notion of the Native American as an enlightened being, superior to Caucasian interlopers, depicting the Huron world as one of ugliness and harshness. The missionary's arrogance blinds him to the Indians' preference for their own religious rituals over the faith he is attempting to thrust upon them. Yet, in his new proximity to nature and exposure to primitive mores that shock him, the priest begins to feel the bonds of his asceticism and question his faith. Finally, after being captured and tortured by a party of Iroquois, he begins to evince the compassion with which the conversion of the Hurons becomes possible. The tragic ramifications of this process are only revealed many years later. Bluteau is excellent in this bleak film, which includes some of the most meticulously researched representations of Native American life ever put on film. First, When the movie first started, I was struck first by the fact that it was a reenactment of times over 350 years ago. Obviously, this period of history was not available for proper filming, but I felt skeptical about the ethnographic accuracy of its portrayal. By the end, it was obviously staged as a feature film, which (while very entertaining) left me questioning its integrity, considering all of the characters were paid actors.. Secondly, The spiritual contrast between the Native Americans and the colonists was very interesting. The cultural boundary caused significant misunderstandings but eventually, it felt as though universal values of love and respect were revealed to exist within both, and each wished to please the spirit forces they felt were so prominent in their lives. At the end, Black Robe followed the Indian girl’s request that he leave them and go off on his own, according to her recently deceased father’s dream – after all, “a dream is real. It must be obeyed.” His compliance led him to his own spiritual salvation, as the head of a church
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