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Black Robe

Black Robe

List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $15.98
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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: !
Review: Well, Black Robe is a very interesting and powerful film, and is a lot more realistic than Dances with Wolves. For people interested in history it is worthwile to see.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: History portrayed
Review: When I first saw this movie at the theatres more than 10 years ago, it made a profound impact on me. As I now have it my DVD library, I can watch this movie over and over again. Portraying a Jesuit priest's 1500 mile journey through the Canadian wilderness in the early 1600's, it is a story of God and demons, human relations, and our view of other cultures. It gives a wonderful insight into the minds of the Jesuits, how Europe came to conquer the "savages" and "save them" from their false believes. The filming is wonderful, the landscape and scenery stunning, and the performances very good. The movie does not wear silk gloves - the harsh reality of the wilderness is showed in its true and brutal form. Here, only the strong survive, and you cannot be sure that God will save you. One of the best movies of the 90's, and a great preference over Dances with wolves.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Native Americans? Europeans? History? Not this movie.
Review: Why such lengthy, passionate, sometimes angry reviews? Because this extraordinary work of art portrays nothing less than the human condition: The splendor of the earth we find ourselves--without having asked--living upon; man's perennial inhumanity to man; our struggle to live together and our yearning for peace; above all, the endless battle between hope and despair as we--all of us, throughout history--struggle with the apparent absence of our own Creator.

Where is God and why are we here?

That's a tall order for a movie. If you haven't seen Black Robe, don't read reviews that give away the story, but be forewarned that this masterpiece gets very close to the flame. Fire burns, but I would agree with a number of reviewers that this is the best film ever made.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: SLIGHT MISUNDERSTANDINGS OR CULTURAL GAPS
Review: You have two manners to conquer a new frontier : to shoot everything that moves, an attitude sanctified by the 90% of the westerns, or to try to integrate the owners of the land you want to civilize. Australian director Bruce Beresford has chosen, in BLACK ROBE, to show us the difficulties you will encounter if you adopt the second attitude.

"Black Robe" is the name the Quebec indians have given to Father Laforgue, a jesuit who desires to reach a Huron Mission situated 1500 miles away of the last french fort. BLACK ROBE is the story of this trip in the wild canadian forests. Bruce Beresford, with an objectivity one has to admire, will present us the efforts of Father Laforgue in order to save the souls of his companions and the indians' reluctance to accept the religious views of the man in black.

At the end of the movie, you are a little bit puzzled because you understand that nobody is totally good or totally bad in this relation. Furthermore, the jesuit priest, in his black robe, appears as a wicked demon to most of the indians. For him, Nature is evil. It's a world where sex and pleasure rule, where the wind hurling in the forest says a lot more to the listener than all the evangelic speeches in the world.

Great music and superb cinematography too. Four trailers and a menu which is not as easy to navigate in as it is good-looking.

A DVD to discover


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