Black Robe (1991) on Netflix
R19911h 41mAdventureDramaHistory
New France, 1634: Father LaForgue, a young Jesuit, is sent to a distant Huron mission as winter closes in. Algonquins under Chomina guide him and his companion Daniel across lakes and forest.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb7.1/108,384 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes92%
Trailer
Plot summary
In New France in 1634, Jesuit missionaries have won few Algonquin converts around the settlement that will become Quebec City. Samuel de Champlain sends Father LaForgue, a young priest, to a Huron village where a Catholic mission waits, a journey of up to 2,400 kilometers as winter nears. Daniel, a non-Jesuit assistant, travels with him under the guidance of Algonquins: Chomina, an experienced traveler whose dreams foretell events, his wife, and their daughter Annuka. Daniel and Annuka fall in love, which unsettles the celibate LaForgue. When the group meets a band of Montagnais who have never seen Frenchmen, their shaman Mestigoit accuses LaForgue of being a demon and warns the Algonquins against his influence.
Cast
- Wesley Côtéas Oujita
- Jean Brousseauas Champlain
- Yvan Labelleas Mestigoit
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Black Robe (1991)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Black Robe sat in development hell for more than four years because no major American studio would finance it, and director Bruce Beresford only secured backing from Alliance Films after his previous film, Driving Miss Daisy, won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
- The film has its French characters speak English but presents the Indigenous characters' dialogue in the real Cree, Mohawk and Algonquin languages, while Catholic prayers are recited in Latin.
- The rights had been acquired by Canada's Alliance Films, which had signed another director who then fell out, as did another director, before the job was given to Beresford.
- Activist Ward Churchill praised the filmmaking but criticized Black Robe for historical inaccuracy, arguing it vilified the Mohawk people as part of a broader theme that Indigenous resistance to European culture was evil.
- Financing came through a Canada-Australia co-production treaty that required 30 percent Australian funding, forcing the production to hire an Australian crew and cast two Australian actors.
- The recent box-office success of Dances with Wolves, which covered similar themes the year before, also helped convince Alliance Films that Black Robe was commercially viable.
