TWO MISSIONARIES

Italy, 1974, 98 minutes, Colour.
Terence Hill, Bud Spencer, Jean- Pierre Aumont, Robert Loggia.
Directed by Franco Rossi.

Two Missionaries is a farcical comedy. Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill have made a career for themselves in knockabout (emphasis on the knockabout) adventures like the Trinity series. And they have been very popular. They have also been to Brazil in All the Way Boys, parodying the gangster movies in Even Angels Eat Beans and also dune buggy antics in Watch Out Were Mad. Here they try religion, Central America, gambling and missionary work.

One of them is actually a missionary priest using the knockabout missionary method. Its the same thing in a different disguise those who like the others will like this. It is slightly better.

1. How enjoyable is this kind of Italian comedy? Has it any value or values besides entertainment?

2. Why are films like this made? For what audience? The Italian appeal, the international appeal?

3. What is the audience appeal of the two stars? The film as a vehicle for them? The use of irony, jokes, slapstick violence?

4. How important was the central American setting? Did it seem real or a fantasy setting?

5. Was there any important social comment underlying the farce and the humour? The role of the Church in this country, the role of government and authority, the nature of oppression of the peasants, the monopolies of the international traders, the seeds of revolution, the nature of revolution? Was this merely used, or did it have realistic overtones?

6. Audience response to the religious atmosphere of the film? The initial discussion in the religious order, the nature of mission work, the image of missionaries, their religious role,(the Communion and services sequences), the trade and the helping of the people (paternalistic), the support of the religious for revolution?

7. Audience response to the two stars as priests? The irony of this? Their western and violent image translated into religious terms? How genuine was the religious feeling about the priests' work? The importance of the jokes about violence? Bud Spencer's type of violence?

8. Did the two missionaries have any characterization or were they just the expected image? Gambling, life on the boat, the relation ship to the visiting missionary?

9. How important was the detail in this films priests' life, mission work, the location photography and setting, the fights and their choreography, the gambling house, the government, the shop, the revolutionaries?

10. The comment by way of ending?

11. What values in audiences do films like this presuppose? Is this why they can be entertaining?