The Missionary (1982)

Overrated and overhyped

Fantastic!

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Michael Palin was always the less acerbic of the Python troupe and here as in the wonderful TV series "Ripping Yarns" (that he had made three years earlier) he captures perfectly the quintessential Britishness that is Anglicanism and the clergy life and the British classes at play in Victorian Britain.The plot is classic: an Anglican missionary returns from India to wed and is sent to help fallen women find redemption in the less salubrious parts of the East End.Throughout there are a number of wonderful touches, Denholm Elliot's Bishop in the classic Bishop's stove hat with rosette and strings, looking exactly like he should be on the steps of Christchruch, the hunting party with it's upper class twittiness, and the wonderful filing system's for letters of his fiancée Deborah Firtzbanks etc; As with all of Palin's fiction the humour is affectionate and often silly but never barbed or cruel and rarely surreal. He obviously has a deep love for the surrounding, the era, and the values - and there is much to love about the time.With excellent settings (Cliveden etc;) and good costuming plus very fine lighting and editing this is no lightweight production; but it is the wonderful array of British actors of that generation, Trevor Howard, Michael Hordern, and Maggie Smith, with her impossibly brilliant figure, that steal the show.All in all, the very essence of the British: a brilliant gentle civilsed comedy that is full of touches that linger on....

I've seen this movie in the ORIGINAL WIDESCREEN VERSION with audiences as diverse as art house theaters, US Navy ships on deployment, and home viewing with friends, and even in the midst of sailors on 8 month deployments there was a genuine enjoyment of the plot and characters. What a shame the excellence has been completely gutted from the film by a horrible Pan and Scan adaptation. It is for such criminal efforts that whipping posts should be retained in public squares.The movie is a period piece that is more like a Gosford Park with humor than a Pretty Woman as a Victorian costume drama. Handmade Films were ALWAYS films that "teemed with quiet fun", and this one is no exception.However, when HALF THE SCREEN IS MISSING IT'S HARD TO APPRECIATE THE HUMOR! There's the irony of two men of the cloth talking about the soul building merit of sport, as they pass a bloody-faced 'sport' being hammered into a boxing ring turnbuckle, BUT that's all lost when you don't see the bloody-faced 'sport'. There's the maid in the house forever hovering like some dark force of unrequited passion, together with the swish-swish of her dress, BUT that's all lost when you RARELY see the maid, and you certainly don't see the expressions on her face when the action is allegedly on the other characters in the scene.There's also the scene at the end that's been 'edited out' of recent releases of this film where the butler, Michael Hordern, ends up getting into bed with the divorced husband of the heroine of the film, Maggie Smith.Finally, there's the absolutely ROUSING Music Hall finale, where half the screen is devoted to an obvious 'offspring' of Fortesque turning over a scrapbook that details the life of the main characters after the film ends. It's such a great scene that I've had people request to see just IT as a sort of finale to a night's worth of movie viewing.IT'S THAT GOOD! Without these scenes and half-scenes, what was an excellent plot, full of irony and modern sympathies, is butchered.To paraphrase Roy Batty from Bladerunner, "All those moments are lost in time, like tears in the rain" by a transfer to Pan and Scan.If you can find a letterbox transfer of this movie, BUY IT if you enjoy the Handmade Films genre; if you like Time Bandits even though it isn't Jurassic Park.Otherwise, the only thing to do is hope that some day, some way the 'long tail' theory of online video rental will provide it to people who can appreciate clever and interesting cinema.

I won't detail the plot as that's been covered rather extensively in the other comments. If you refrain from expecting a Monty Python movie, you'll find it much easier to enjoy The Missionary. It's not a Python movie. It's not outrageously funny though it does have some very funny moments, some hilarious. Most of the humor however is much more subtle, possibly too much so for many viewers. A great cast.

In England in 1906, a young reverend, with a sense of vocation and just before marriage, is entrusted to open a house of refuge for fallen ladies of East End. He is then seduced by the grateful girls and a witty, love-seeking lady nob, who is ready to support the institute.A fitfully amusing, crisply acted, often sophisticated period comedy whose central conception - prostitutes do what they do for pleasure - is slightly absurd to say the least. Most of its fun is provided by the garnish.