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At Play in the Fields of the Lord
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At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991) is a drama film directed by Hector Babenco adapted from the 1965 novel of the same name by American author Peter Matthiessen. The screenplay was written by Babenco and Jean-Claude Carrière. It stars Tom Berenger, Aidan Quinn, Kathy Bates, Daryl Hannah, John Lithgow and Tom Waits.
Americans, Lewis Moon (Tom Berenger) and Wolf (Tom Waits) are stranded in Mãe de Deus an outpost in the deep Brazilian Amazon River basin, after their plane runs out of gasoline.
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Encyclopedia
At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991) is a drama film directed by Hector Babenco adapted from the 1965 novel of the same name by American author Peter Matthiessen. The screenplay was written by Babenco and Jean-Claude Carrière. It stars Tom Berenger, Aidan Quinn, Kathy Bates, Daryl Hannah, John Lithgow and Tom Waits.
Plot
Two Americans, Lewis Moon (Tom Berenger) and Wolf (Tom Waits) are stranded in Mãe de Deus an outpost in the deep Brazilian Amazon River basin, after their plane runs out of gasoline. The local police commandante wants the Niaruna tribe, living upriver, to move their village so they won't be killed by gold miners moving into the area and cause trouble for him with the provincial government. The commandante cuts a deal with Moon: if he and his fellow mercenary bomb the Niaruna village and drive them away, they will be given gasoline for their airplane and allowed to leave.
Born-again Christian evangelists (missionary) Martin Quarier (Aidan Quinn) and his wife Hazel (Kathy Bates) want to spread the Christian gospel to the primitive Niaruna indigenous natives. They arrive in Mãe de Deus to meet Leslie Huben (John Lithgow), his wife Andy Huben (Darryl Hannah), and their "civilized" Niaruna helper. In town, they meet a Catholic priest who wants to re-establish a mission to the Niarunas, as the former missionary was killed by them.
Moon and Wolf leave in their plane to attack the Niaruna, but Moon abrubtly changes his mind when he sees the community and an Indian fires an arrow at the plane. They return to Mãe de Deus.
That night, after a discussion between Moon, Wolf, Quarier, and the Catholic priest, Moon takes an Indian drug and becomes hallucinatory. He takes off alone in his plane and parachutes into the Niaruna village. Moon, a half-Native American Cheyenne, aligns himself with the Niarunas. He is accepted as "Kisu-Mu", one of the Niaruna gods, and begins to adapt to Niaruna life and culture.
The four evangelicals travel upriver and establish their mission. The Indians originally converted by the Catholics arrive, and await the arrival of the Niaruna. Eventually they arrive, taking the gifts that the Quarier family offer, but not staying long.
Billy dies of blackwater fever, causing Hazel to lose her sanity and she is returned to Mãe de Deus. Martin becomes despondent, arguing with Leslie and slowly losing his faith.
Moon encounters Andy swimming nude. They kiss, and Moon catches her cold and brings it back to the Niaruna. The tribe becomes sick, and Moon and the tribe's men go to the missionary to beg for drugs.
Although Leslie refuses, Martin agrees to give the drugs. He travels to the Niaruna village with their helper. In the village, after Martin and Moon talk, helicopters arrive to bomb the village. Martin is killed by his "civilized" helper, and Moon runs, only to be told that "he is a white man." The end has Moon's canoe floating away and Moon standing alongside the river.
Background
Producer Saul Zaentz first tried to make this film in 1965. Yet, he discovered that MGM owned the rights to Peter Matthiessen's novel.
Zaentz kept trying to buy them every time there was a top executive change at MGM until 1989 when the new studio heads Jay Kanter and Alan Ladd, Jr. decided that MGM would not make the film.
Zaentz paid $1.4 million for the rights to the novel.
Filming locations
The picture was filmed in Belém do Pará, Pará, Brazil.
Cast
Critical reception
Vincent Canby, film critic for The New York Times, had mixed feelings about the film but did like the acting and the screenplay, and wrote, "At Play in the Fields of the Lord doesn't play smoothly, but it often plays well...Mr. Lithgow and Miss Hannah, who grows more secure as an actress with every film, are fine in complex roles that are exceptionally well written...Though the film features a spectacular penultimate sequence, it seems not to know how to end. It sort of drifts away, perhaps trying to soften its own well-earned pessimism."
Critic Roger Ebert had read the novel and believed the film is true to its themes. Ebert makes the case that producer Saul Zaentz has a history of producing "unfilmable" source material. In an article that basically reviews the plot, he wrote, "Watching it, we are looking at a morality play about a world in which sincere people create unwitting mischief so that evil people can have their way. The movie essentially argues that all peoples have a right to worship their own gods without interference, but it goes further to observe that if your god lives in the land and the trees, then if we destroy your land, we kill your god. These messages are buried in the very fabric of the film, in the way it was shot, in its use of locations, and we are not told them, we absorb them."
Awards
Wins
- Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards: LAFCA Award; Best Music, Zbigniew Preisner; 1991.
Nominations
- Golden Globe: Golden Globe; Best Original Score - Motion Picture, Zbigniew Preisner; 2002.
External links
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