SYNOPSICS
At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991) is a English,Portuguese movie. Hector Babenco has directed this movie. Tom Berenger,John Lithgow,Daryl Hannah,Aidan Quinn are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1991. At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991) is considered one of the best Drama,Romance movie in India and around the world.
Martin and Hazel Quarrier are small-town fundamentalist missionaries sent to the jungles of South America to convert the Indians. Their remote mission was previously run by the Catholics, before the natives murdered them all. They are sent by the pompous Leslie Huben, who runs the missionary effort in the area but who seems more concerned about competing with his Catholic 'rivals' than in the Indians themselves. Hazel is terrified of the Indians while Martin is fascinated. Soon American pilot Lewis Moon joins the Indian tribe but is attracted by Leslie's young wife, Andy. Can the interaction of these characters and cultures, and the advancing bulldozers of civilization, avoid disaster?
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At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991) Reviews
Highly underrated
Directed by Academy Award nominated Argentinian-Brazilian writer-director Hector Babenco and co-written by a longtime Luis Buñuel collaborator Jean Claude Carriere this is a breathtakingly beautiful, masterfully directed film, that features a story of two protestant missionary couples from a small town in U.S. that come to Amazonia with an intent to preach to the wild Indians of the area and an American pilot, wonderfully played by Tom Berenger, who feels atracted to the way of life of the Indians and joins and lives with them. Following the life of it´s protagonists in Amazonian forest, the film explores many subjects, such as: religious fanaticism and intolerance, ecology, destructive external influence on an unique Indian culture and, of cause, lust and greed. It´s slowly paced and has a duration of over 3 hours but it never became boring, at least for me. I was surprised to find that this film has an average rating of only 6.3 here on IMDB. It certainly deserves much more. 8/10
Greek tragedy in the Amazon
In "At Play in the Fields of the Lord", the remarkable Hector Babenco (Pixote, Kiss of the Spider Woman) paints a portrait of disillusion and despair on a canvas of sun-dappled green. This is no mere tract on the consequences of cultural imperialism, but an examination of the myriad ways in which human folly, ignorance and arrogance (with an assist from the heedless juggernaut of Nature) conspire to overcome idealism, innocence, and the fragile constructs of civilization. This is not a "feel-good" flick, but it is a powerful and affecting one. The actors involved--including Tom Berenger, Aidann Quinn, John Lithgow and Daryl Hannah (!)--all give intelligent and well-modulated performances. And, once again, the astonishing Kathy Bates blows everyone else away with her wrenching turn as Quinn's reluctant (and ultimately devastated) wife. The film is long, dark and stubbornly pessimistic-- but also visually lush and emotionally cathartic; ultimately, the viewer will find it unforgettable.
All Shoud See And Read
I purchased the video of this film after it passed through the theatres so fast I was unable to see it. I had read and reread Peter Matthiessen's award winning book and still gift it to friends and family. The film remained true to the novel. No film can truly portray in three or even in five hours all the complexities that a good writer can express. This film did however do an exceptional job for the time it had. Some have said this film is anti Protestant, or just anti missionary. That is just too simplistic and misleading a label for this story. There is far more to digest than those labels could ever suggest. Here is the deliberate forced movement or destruction of a tribe to gain gold mining opportunities. This is happening with local government officials looking the other way ignoring current federal obligations to the native population. There is a built in irony that Moon (Tom Berenger) is part Cheyenne Indian. The current South Dakota reservations came about by our government reneging on deals in order to get access to gold in the Black Hills. The result was an ecological and cultural disaster for the Sioux nation. This film was as about the symbiosis of culture and environment. Missionaries in Micronesia told the islanders in Yap that taboos on fishing were just superstition. An island bio-system that could once support 10,000 people can now not even support 1, 000. Missionaries tell South American tribes that their occasional drug inspired journeys are pure evil. There are ways these ancient cultural traditions can be kept without any threat to Christian doctrine. Instead, especially for western protestant missionaries, conversion is often more about cultural than religious conversion. This results in the ultimate economic and ecological destruction that follows. Everyone should see this film, and better yet read the incredible book that inspired it.
Suffer the Little Children
The time is during the Depression Thirties and some new Protestant missionaries are coming to an area way up in the Amazon headwaters where only 20 years earlier, a former American president named Theodore Roosevelt nearly lost his life exploring some of this very area. With a positive attitude born of faith and a certain smugness because the previous Christian missionaries there, the Roman Catholics have given the place up, the group goes into the jungle. The trip changes all of them and not for the better. One of the catalysts of change is Tom Berenger who plays a half American Indian pilot/adventurer living in one of the last settlements containing some of civilizations amenities. The Brazilian government wants him to drop some bombs on a tribe called the Niruna who are sitting on some valuable land. Gold is reported there and to a country like Brazil which was still in a frontier stage just like America was in the previous century it can mean jobs and prosperity. Not for the Niruna who are hunters and gatherers from the stone age. Of course if the missionaries can covert the Niruna and persuade them to go than annihilation won't be necessary. It's why the government is so accommodating to the Protestants. The evangelical team consists of married couples John Lithgow and Darryl Hannah and Aidan Quinn and Kathy Bates. Missionaries have played a double edged role when dealing with the non-Christian world. No doubt they are the most insidious of culture destroyers, yet in many cases they've put themselves on the line to prevent some of the worst depravities that civilization brings. John Lithgow and Aidan Quinn offer two contrasting examples. Lithgow just hasn't a clue as to what's happening here. He just sees a group of converts aching for Christianity. When the natives don't live up to his expectations, he takes it rather personally. Aidan Quinn is filled with same missionary zeal and he suffers the cruelest loss in the film when his and Bates's child dies of blackwater fever. Yet when the time comes Quinn steps up to the plate and he and Berenger form an unlikely alliance on behalf of the Niruna. You have to be made of stone to not be emotionally moved by the death of the child. In fact he turns out to be the best missionary tool they have. With his childhood innocence he bonds with the native kids in a way the grownups are incapable of. Too much of civilization's baggage to unload. Maybe the missionaries should have remembered all those gospel verses about little children. They seem to fit here. At Play in the Fields of the Lord is one powerful film. Shot on location in the Amazon headwaters by acclaimed Brazilian director Hector Babenco, it's got a powerful message for today's world, poised on the brink of religious war. Babenco did the film Pixote a decade earlier which was a view of Brazil from a different angle. This time with gorgeous color photography and some professional actors in his ranks, he's created a masterpiece that ought to be required viewing for policy makers in all parts of the globe
A complex story with issues concerning religion, understanding different cultures and also identity
The length of this movie is possibly a detriment, however it is worth the time in most respects. One of the main issues explored is age-old in terms of how religion is brought to people that the civilized world sometimes arrogantly considers are "savages." Another issue is the finding of one's own identity. The main characters in the story, mostly missionaries from the United States, seem to each represent various perspectives and viewpoints that people can bring to living in another place and culture, in this story it is the Amazon and the Indians that live there. The acting was good -- not great great -- but good enough that you believed the character's various dilemnas. Adian Quinn did quite well in his role as he struggled with trying to understand the minds of the Indians and their concept of a god and blending this with his own Christian perspective. Tom Berenger's role was more complex and his acting was subdued. The other actors such as Darryl Hannah and John Lithgow had somewhat difficult parts that were handled competently. Kathy Bates, as always, added flavor as did Tom Waits.