After finishing the movie Black Robe by Bruce Beresford, viewed in class, there are so many things that just don't seem to flow well in today's society. Recently, the world has shifted to less "selfish" views on the rest of the world. And the fact that this movie shows how people really only care about themselves deep down inside seems kind of silly. And that what I think the entire movie focused on was how each side, the French missionaries and the Indians, only felt that they were important and never despite the best of their reasonable thinking could not begin to understand one another. The whole movie comes down to people thinking that others think the same way that they do, and when they do differ in thinking, they don't try to understand that thinking and just state that the other side is dumb.
The movie revolves around a 1632 French missionary, Father LaForgue or Black Robe as the Indians referred to him. He traveled to North America to attempt to "save" the savages on the new land. I think he gets this whole mission from, as revealed in his flashback, another priest who claims to want to return to Canada to save the savages. This theory about saving people is an important job for them, what better way could they serve their lord than to save more people. And so Father LaForgue ventures to the new world with his divine mission, which I can only see as a way to better himself in the eyes of his god and not really in looking out for saving the other people.
His mission leads him to a Canadian settlement and an Algonquin tribe. There he is first introduced into the Indian religion, culture, and practices. This is also where his first major shock occurs, when he encounters a Frenchman, Daniel, having sex with the Algonquin chief's daughter, Annuka. This not only disturbs his ideal community, but also leads him to a difficult place, a place where he lusts for Annuka. Later on in the movie he feels the need to cleanse himself through whipping and praying.
