One of the most gut-wrenching scenes in all of modern cinema comes at the end of Werner Herzog’s 2005 documentary, Grizzly Man. The film tells the tragic story of Timothy Treadwell, an outdoorsy American man who made the mistake — as so many of Herzog’s protagonists do — of staring into the abyss without bothering to consider the consequences. Treadwell was killed by a grizzly bear that he’d deluded himself into thinking he could tame. They recovered audio of the fatal attack, which Herzog listens to on camera in the film, but crucially, restricts from the audience. It distressed him to the point that he instructed Treadwell’s ex-girlfriend to destroy it immediately.
Directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss perhaps came across a similar ethical dilemma in their new film, The Mission, which in many ways can be seen as a thematic companion piece to Grizzly Man. Like Herzog’s classic, the documentary follows the exploits of another adventurer — the Evangelical missionary John Allen Chau — who got more than what he bargained for after making illegal contact with the Sentinelese tribe in the Andaman Islands. The Sentinelese are perhaps the world’s most isolated community, having fended away almost all attempts at communication by the outside world.
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Chau, a mixed-race American who grew up in the ‘90s, slowly became obsessed with the idea of converting the Sentinelese to Christianity. He believed that the island was Satan’s last great stronghold, and that only he could bring the Gospel of Christ to the 200-odd people who are said to live there. Chau wasn’t always a religious zealot, however. He grew up on The Adventures of Tintin and Robinson Crusoe, but found himself drifting away from conventional pop-culture in his teens, as he became completely entrenched in the Evangelical movement.
Chau’s life story is recounted in gorgeously animated sequences by his own father, who openly blames the Evangelicals for what happened to him. Chau was aware that the Indian government had forbidden all contact with the Sentinelese. He also knew that several past expeditions had ended with the Sentinelese giving clear warning signs to incoming explorers by aiming arrows at them. One of the most enduring images of the tribe — this also gives the film’s producers, National Geographic, a chance to offer internal critique about the west’s messiah complex — forever painting them as the savages in the eyes of the ‘civilised’ world.
The movie makes an honest attempt at capturing the complex blend of obsession, devotion, and delusion that sent John Allen Chau on his suicide mission. Perhaps the most interesting interviewee — the movie also features one of Chau’s old friends, and his many enablers from the Evangelical community — is the linguist Daniel Everett, who sees in Chau a kindred spirit, and harbours a vague sense of guilt over what happened to him. Everett spent decades with the Pirahã people of the Amazon, initially with the intention of teaching them the Lord’s ways. But in an unexpected turn of events, he found his own faith crumbling when the Pirahã started resisting his lessons.
He’s a fascinating character, someone who tears up at the mere memory of an old aphorism — “He gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” — and freely admits that his three-decade mission might have been a waste of time. Whatever statements that The Mission is unable to make in literal terms, it makes by awarding Everett a large chunk of the screen time. But he isn’t a martyr, not like Chau.
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We see endless self-shot footage of Chau climbing mountains, jumping into rivers, scurrying along narrow forest paths — visuals that could ostensibly project him as a ‘regular’ person. But Everett offers perhaps the film’s most sobering observation, when he warns that Chau’s reckless actions might inspire others to make similar illegal incursions into forbidden territory. It’s a dangerous proposition, and as one person keenly notes, none of this takes into consideration what the Sentinelese might want.
The Mission
Directors – Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss
Rating – 4/5
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