He stated that the Guarani were accomplished musicians long before the arrival of the Europeans and this became an authentic venue for mutual exchange between the Jesuits and the natives (O'Brien, 2004). Simultaneously, the slave acquirer Captain Rodriguez Mendoza kills his brother in a heat of the moment duel and believes himself eternally damned. Rodriguez encounters Father Gabriel who recommends to him to come on the St. Carlos Mission as his retribution. Throughout the time, Rodriguez transforms and is appointed as Father Rodriguez. At the same time, the papal jurisdiction arrives on the continent to settle the territorial claims of Spain and Portugal, and also to decide whether the Jesuits are justified in their missionary claims that the Guarani are spiritual beings rather than "savage animals" (Greydanus, 2002). .
In connection to O'Brien's article, he declares that the assumption of the Spanish authorities towards the Guarani was that they were "childlike" not savage animals, and would simply and easily obey the Jesuits commands, and that the Jesuits were primarily blamed for the actions of the Guarani, since they were painting an obviously fake picture of native rebellion (O'Brien, 2004). Cardinal Altamirano, the presumed narrator of the film, visits the great Missions of St. Miguel, and St. Carlos, accompanied by the Jesuits and some Guarani people. He is astonished and amazed by what he is faced with, but after it all, he still decides that the Guarani people must be leave and go back to where they came from. The Guarani and Jesuits refuse, but only Father Gabriel will not fight since violence is not love. The result, is destruction of The Mission, the slaughter of the Jesuits and Guarani people, and the territorial claims are resettled and the slave trade can once flourish again. Several important themes are depicted throughout the film. Rodriguez transformation from slave hunter to Jesuit depicts the theme of spiritual redemption, guilt, and forgiveness, whereas the end of Father Gabriel's pilgrimage where he is shot with the people he had tried to save depicts the theme "fall from grace" and human dignity.
