At Play In The Fields Of The Lord

Two Americans, one a renegade half-breed, Lewis Moon (Tom Berenger), the other a mercenary, Wolf (Tom Waits), arrive by plane in an isolated area on the Amazon in Brazil. They have run out of not only gas, but luck too, for the law in Mae de Deus, the rugged last outpost of civilization, has grounded them. Waiting for supplies and a new missionary family to arrive is Leslie Huben (John Lithgow) and his wife Andy (Daryl Hannah). Huben is the head of an American evangelical missionary society. Their purpose is to bring religion to the Niaruna Indians, who are still living in their primitive state on land that holds much promise for development.

The Quarriers arrive, Martin (Aidan Quinn), his wife Hazel (Kathy Bates) and their young son Billy (Niilo Kivirinta). Under Huben's guidance, they intend to set up a mission to convert the "savages" in the rain forest. Their task is not an easy one--others have been killed doing the Lord's work--but they set forth with high hopes of accomplishing their goals.

The local police chief offers Moon and Wolf a way out of their dilemma. If they will bomb the small Niaruna village, he will give them gasoline and passage out of the country. Moon flies out with his companion over the primitive area. They fly through isolated areas of majestic beauty. Their tiny plane lost in the sky, against a backdrop of mountains and waterfalls, the rain forest looms. There like a jewel is the Niaruna settlement, surrounded by dense foliage. The inhabitants, spotting the plane, rush out with their bows and arrows to take aim. Moon, his Cherokee heritage rushing through his veins, chooses not to bomb the village and returns to base. That night, he flies back to the forest to join the Niaruna in their fight for survival. Dropping down by parachute, he is taken for Kisu, their god of evil, and becomes part of their tribe.

The Quarriers settle into their forest outpost. Martin develops a growing respect for the Indian way of life, which soon brings him into conflict with his loyalty to the mission. Little Billy easily adapts to the children of the Niaruna and soon becomes their friend. Tragedy strikes, though, when the boy dies of blackwater fever, triggering Hazel's mental breakdown and fueling Martin's disillusionment with his faith.

Moon becomes the instrument of the Niaruna's destruction when he brings a flu epidemic back with him after a brief encounter with Andy Huben, whom he finds swimming near the mission and who willingly yields to his kiss. The encounter marks the beginning of the end for the Indians, who have lived in perfect harmony with their environment and have never been exposed to the germs of the civilized world. Their final demise is hastened by the greed of the white people who, having discovered gold in the rain forest, go about destroying the Niaruna without mercy.

AT PLAY IN THE FIELDS OF THE LORD is a film of great beauty, sensitivity and purpose. It deals with a conflict of high ideals and brutal realities, where outsiders, both those who deal in souls and those mercenaries who deal in land, destroy a native culture fighting for survival.

Producer Saul Zaentz (ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, AMADEUS) waited 20 years to make this film. Hector Babenco, a native of Argentina, was just the right man to complete his project. The director of photography, Lauro Escorel, captures some exquisite vistas for which the music of Zbigniew Preisner provides a perfect backdrop. (Violence, substance abuse, profanity, sexual situations, adult situations, nudity.) leave a comment