Black Robe

The movie I watched was Black Robe. This movie is about a Jesuit priest who goes on a mission to convert the Algonquin and Huron Indians to Catholicism. On his journey, he runs into a series of unfortunate events that make him question his beliefs about God. First of all, the Algonquin Indians do not respect him and his religion, Catholicism. They think he is a demon because when he prays, they think he is casting a spell on someone or something. To add on to that, the Algonquin Indians and him run into the Iroquois Indians, a fierce tribe who is all about beating their enemy to a pulp. They get captured as prisoners and are taken back to the Iroquois village. There, the Iroquois torture them a little bit, but let them stay alive for the night to think about what is going to happen to them. That night they escaped because the only female left seduced a member of the Iroquois. At that time, there was only four people left, the priest and his friend and the leader of the Algonquin and his daughter. A little bit after their escape, the Algonquin leader died because of an arrowhead that was lodged in his stomach from the Iroquois attack. Then, the priest headed toward the Huron village and the priest's friend and the daughter of the Algonquin leader went to safety. When the priest arrived at the Huron village, they asked him to baptize them, and he did. They were converted to Catholicism. Fifteen years later, they were all killed by the Iroquois Indians.

One element of World History touched on in the movie was the spread of Catholicism. The movie's purpose was to show the difficulties people went through to spread what they believed in. Another element of World History was the different Indian tribes and the conflict between them. In the movie, the Iroquois Indians were shown as the superior force. The Algonquin and Huron Indians were not as powerful. Another element touched on was the bitterness between the French and the Indians. The priest and his friend on the mission were both Frenchmen.

The film definitely reinforced my thought of brutality that the Indians used on their enemies. Before you can greet the Iroquois leader, you have to go through a path with Iroquois members on both sides that beat you with clubs and spears. After that the Iroquois leader cut off one of the priest's fingers. Their mentality was to make you scream because they thought that was like giving your soul to them. The night before they were supposed to be tortured and killed, the Iroquois leader said that they were going to burn her alive on the stake. Before they went to bed, the Iroquois leader told the Algonquin leader that they were going to peel off every single piece of skin they had, but make sure they would still be alive to feel it. That is major brutality!

At first, I thought the film was not going to be that interesting, but as I kept watching, the movie became more and more interesting. Even though it is a really old movie, the actors were really good. They were a lot better than most actors of today. I liked the fact that it had flashbacks to foreshadow what was going to come next. It kept me on the edge of my seat. The movie had a good balance of suspense, romance, and action. Overall, I liked this movie very much.