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Black Robe Film Essay

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Black Robe Film Essay
Black Robe Film Essay

Throughout history, cultural and religious clashes and interests have been always the source of conflicts around the world. Those kinds of clashes, conflicts, and beliefs have always led to colonialism, racism, and superiority complex. In the film "Black Robe", the story of the first contacts between the Indians and the Jesuit missionaries from France who came to convert them to Catholicism. This movie focuses on the religious and cultural clashes, and it illustrates some similarities and differences between the Indians and the Jesuits.

The film shows that even though the Indians and the Jesuits have different belief systems, they have some similarities. They both have faith and believe in spirits, and each side claims that the other side doesn’t know anything and call each other as stupid. This indicates that they have a similar point of view toward each other. The scene where the two leaders Champlain and Chomina prepare to meet shows how the two leaders helped by their men to wear the best clothes and jewels they have, which indicates that they followed the same protocol. I think this scene demonstrates that there are some similarities among cultures. The movie demonstrates Indian feelings as well, when Daniel and the Algonquin chief's daughter, Annuka, fell in love, which indicates that the Indians have feelings as well. Therefore, I believe that the Indians have similar feelings just as the Jesuits and other humans.

The Jesuits call the Indians "Savages", and see them as souls to be saved and shown the way to paradise. Similarly, the Indians see the Jesuits as destroyers and "demons" threatening their gods and sorceries. Out of that, a big conflict between two cultures is

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