A masterpiece. Dark and cold.

A tragedy, that there is not this on DVD, because it deserves more than an ancient VHS. In particular, the splendor of the Canadian nature and the wonderful Sacred Soundtrack (highly recommended, composed by Georges Delerue) can not be enjoyed crystal clear enough.
The plot is well known ... and sadly enough. The heat of the Indians with each other and the love of the beautiful Daniel for beautiful chief's daughter is like a lonely beacon in the darkness of Christian proselytizing mania and the inhospitable environment. It shivers a while watching and the longer one looks, the more one is ashamed of the church.
At the end you do not know to distinguish what brutality is cruel: the barbarism of the Iroquois, who defend their country or the arrogance of Rome knowing all seriousness, what these people are kindly believe. Perplexity, and grief sets in. At the end of the black skirt picks up the last means to baptize desperate sick of nowhere: the promise of false hopes, they would sound through baptism. Here you have the feeling, the priest knows the end of his journey himself no longer, to what he was still supposed to believe, so "abandoned by God" seems to him the land. But is it really? At the end, the sun rises in the glow of a simple cross. Or she goes under? It's snowing again, a wonderful boy chorale is heard and it is getting dark. And it freezes and is taken. A masterpiece.