Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991)

Director: Hector Babenco

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Babenco's ambitious eco-movie, co-scripted with Jean-Claude Carrière, condenses Peter Matthiessen's lengthy novel embracing greed, disloyalty and religious conflict in the Amazon rainforest. Martin Quarrier (Quinn) strives to understand the very culture he seeks to change: when he arrives to convert Niaruna tribesmen, clashes with his repressive wife (Bates) and dogmatic fellow-missionary Huben (Lithgow) foreshadow terrible violence. His despair is more discreetly matched by that of Huben's wife (Hannah, weak in a sketchy role), but overshadowed by that of Lewis Moon (Berenger), a part-Cheyenne mercenary who throws in his lot with the Niaruna. The film boasts a sense of conviction and wonderful natural spectacle, but lacks drive. There are also awkward lunges in tone, most evident in Bates' swift decent into madness, and the casting is problematic. Lithgow, Bates and Waits (as Moon's low-life partner) are all excellent, but Quinn's heart-throb status jars with the requirements of his role.

Author: CM 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Hector Babenco

Producer: Saul Zaentz

Cast: Tom Berenger, John Lithgow, Daryl Hannah, Aidan Quinn, Tom Waits, Kathy Bates, Nelson Xavier full cast

Duration: 187 mins


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.