Black Robe ** (1991, Lothaire Bluteau, August Schellenberg, Aden Young, Sandrine Holt) – Classic Movie Review 13,470

Bruce Beresford’s 1991 historical drama film Black Robe stars Lothaire Bluteau as a 17th century Jesuit missionary tasked with founding a mission in New France.

Director Bruce Beresford’s 1991 historical drama film Black Robe stars Lothaire Bluteau, Aden Young, Sandrine Holt, Tantoo Cardinal, August Schellenberg, Gordon Tootoosis, Raoul Trujillo, Billy Two Rivers and Frank Wilson.

In the 17th century, Indians escort French priests across Canada’s wastes and are attacked and tortured by another tribe, in Bruce Beresford’s extremely pretty looking and highly intriguing but finally rather dull and disappointing Canadian pseudo-Western.

Lothaire Bluteau stars as Father Paul LaForgue, a Jesuit missionary ordered to found a mission in New France, which requires him crossing 2,400 kilometres of harsh wilderness with the help of a group of Indigenous Algonquin people, facing danger from the environment and rival tribes.

After a promising start, the lack of a rattling good adventure yarn does it in, and the sudden burst of violence and ‘realism’ at mid-way point will upset those who liked its chocolate-box views of sunsets and scenery. Intellectual content – a would-be examination of the clash of religious fervour and primitive superstitions – is at a fairly low level. The model for this kind of thing is the 1987 film Pathfinder, which reaches all the places this one can’t.

It is based on the 1985 novel by Brian Moore, who writes his own screenplay.

It is mostly shot in the Canadian province of Quebec, in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region, with other scenes shot in Rouen in northern France. Unusually, the film was shot in sequence. It looks spectacular thanks to Peter James’s cinematography, and Georges Delerue’s score helps too.

No major American studio was willing to finance the film, but Canada’s Alliance Films took it on, and funds were raised under a co-production treaty between Canada and Australia, which stipulated an Australian crew and two Australian actors.

Black Robe premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 5 September 1991 and was released on 4 October 1991 in Canada, becoming the highest grossing Canadian film of 1991. It won six Genie Awards, including Best Motion Picture, Best Direction (Beresford), Best Adapted Screenplay (Moore) and Best Supporting Actor (Schellenberg).

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,470

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