National Geographic’s original documentary The Mission is gaining Oscar buzz for its chilling depiction of colonialism, native groups, and the evangelical idealism that leads to tragedy.
The Mission follows John Chau, a young American missionary who was intent on bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Sentinelese people of North Sentinel island. A part of the Andaman Islands, this group of individuals remain one of the few indigenous tribes worldwide who remain excluded from western civilization and modern marvels. Beginning in 1956, the Government of India declared the island a tribal reserve, forbidding travel to the land and surrounding waters.
John Chau’s journey as a missionary to the island led to his death, as he was killed by arrows shot at him from the Sentinelese people. The journey is documented through animated retellings of John’s diary, along with his own father’s letters, and interviews with John’s friends, leaders, and critics.
Throughout the runtime, the story of Chau takes a few necessary detours to add context to the overall situation of his death, such as the idealism that missionary work continues to pursue in a modern society. Dan Everett, a professor of Linguistics, was himself a former missionary. Watching him describe his own experiences in Brazil, his ultimate fall out of faith, and placing those experiences within the context of Chau’s death was utterly fascinating, adding a hands-on critique to a subject that is foreign to so many viewers, myself included.
I found the self-released National Geographic mistakes to be worthy of an entirely separate documentary. The stereotypes of “savages” and “native people are elusive creatures, not human” was brought into the lexicon through media (the original King Kong brought to the forefront the idea that the Sentinelese people were cannibals.), but National Geographic magazine choosing photos of the people deemed more “hostile” has only further pushed forward the detrimental narrative.
John Chau’s story is heartbreaking, but one of his own making. The documentary does a valiant job of highlighting his own delusion in his missionary work, along with the individuals around him that never pushed back on his bad decision-making. Yet, you still leave with a strong level of empathy towards Chau’s story. Is this actually an individual’s choices, or a larger conglomerate of ideals that led John to his demise? Being able to zoom into the individual, then zoom out to view the larger entities creating these harmful mindsets, leads to an incredibly watchable piece of non-fiction storytelling.
The Mission is now streaming on Disney+.
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