MOVIE REVIEW : An Intelligent Epic of Clashing Cultures

The year is 1634. French North America is a wilderness of startling vistas and staggering beauty. It is inhabited by the Algonquin, the Huron, the Iroquois and others, a wide range of native tribes, each with its own separate customs and distinctive culture. The Jesuit Father Laforgue, however, sees this not at all. To him the wilderness is just that, a fearful place ruled by the devil and peopled by savages whose only chance to enter the kingdom of heaven is through his aid.

This is the world of “Black Robe,” an absorbing intellectual epic thoughtfully directed by Bruce Beresford from the novel by screenwriter Brian Moore. Its tale of cultures in inevitable conflict, of driven clerics trying to come to terms with indigenous populations, is an oft-told one, but “Black Robe” (at the Cineplex Odeon Century Plaza) transports us so vividly and convincingly to its physical time and place that we hardly notice. What is harder to excuse, though, is the film’s particular discretion, its reluctance to go very far beyond that splendid surface and probe into the psyche of its title character.

“Black Robe” is what the tribal leaders call Laforgue, who never appears in public without his trademark cassock, wide-brimmed black hat and solemn frown. He has arrived in Quebec, capital of New France, determined to travel 1,500 miles upstream to begin service at a mission to convert the Huron to Catholicism. With great reluctance, Chomina (veteran Canadian actor August Schellenberg), an Algonquin chief, agrees to escort him to his destination.

No one expects the journey to be easy, but it turns out to be a particularly harrowing one, filled with considerable violence and peril, and made more complicated by the presence of Daniel (Aden Young), a young Frenchman who is more interested in the chief’s fetching daughter Annuka (Sandrine Holt) than in the greater glory of God.

Bruce Beresford (“Tender Mercies,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” “Mr. Johnson”) has always been a careful director, the type who measures twice, cuts once and tries to see all sides of a situation, qualities that serve him well here. Just as, in an early scene, he cuts back and forth from the Algonquin Chomina to Champlain, the French leader, as they both dress for the same ceremonial parlay, so he goes back and forth philosophically, allowing both parties to state the issues as they see them.

To the tribes, little knowing the military power and national will that stands behind this thin, stubborn man, Laforgue’s ideas seem preposterous. A paradise without tobacco, the Algonquin ask, uncomprehendingly. Without women ? Surely the Black Robe jests. Even the Frenchman Daniel begins to see the error of his Eurocentric ways, pointing out, like an early Dances With Wolves prototype, that the Indians have their own spiritual values and even live communally in Christian fashion.

To the dedicated and devout Laforgue, however, all this is totally beside the point. A zealot for Christ who is liable to end a casual conversation by saying “May death find you with God in mind,” he perfectly typifies the unquestioning rigidity of belief that allowed decent men to go out into the world and attempt to turn it upside down.

It is much to the credit of Moore’s script and Beresford’s direction that we have as much sympathy for Laforgue as we do. As played by Lothaire Bluteau (who, appropriately enough, was the lead in “Jesus of Montreal”), the priest has a classically aesthetic, not to say sepulchral, look about him, and the film makes his absolute sincerity unquestioned. Hardly in this for reasons of ego or personal gain, he truly believes that where the Almighty is concerned, he is the only one with all the right answers.

In the end, though, a creative work invariably reflects its time, and it is Laforgue and not the locals who comes to question his ideas. Unfortunately, since the film has found no way to show us the priest’s thought patterns, we never really find out what drives him or even much about his change of heart. He begins “Black Robe” (rated R for areas of strong violence and sensuality) as a cipher and pretty much stays that way throughout. It is rare to fault a film for being too reticent, but that is the case here.

Making things more difficult is Bluteau’s lack of expressiveness as an actor, and the conceit of having the non-Indian cast, which would have been both more comfortable and more true-to-life with French dialogue, speak exclusively in awkwardly accented English.

Still, it is hard to shake the memory of “Black Robe.” For one thing, cinematographer Peter James has done a remarkable job capturing the beauty and the mystery of a virgin continent (the film was shot in Canada), and production designer Herbert Pinter and costume designers John Hay and Renee April have given the film a tangible reality.

But even more than that, it is difficult not to think forward 100 and 200 years, to the pitched and bloody battles these competing civilizations would fight, and to understand more fully how misguided the idea of a nominally “civilizing” mission was and how awful a price was paid for its ultimate success.

‘Black Robe’

Lothaire Bluteau: Father Laforgue

Aden Young: Daniel

Sandrine Holt: Annuka

August Schellenberg: Chomina

A Samson production, released by the Samuel Goldwyn Co. Director Bruce Beresford. Producers Robert Lantos, Stephanie Reiehel, Sue Milliken. Executive producers Jake Eberts, Brian Moore, Denis Heroux. Screenplay Moore, from his novel. Cinematographer Peter James. Editor Tim Wellburn. Costumes John Hay, Renee April. Music Georges Delerue. Production design Herbert Pinter. Sound Gary Wilkins. Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes.

MPAA-rated R (areas of strong violence and sensuality).