Led by the director of "Kiss of the Spider Woman" and starring an amazing cast, this epic of three hours goes to show something that some of us might have seen in another film. Better and shorter than "At Play in the Fields of the Lord", the awarded "The Mission" (1986) presented the conflict between Portuguese and Spanish explorers in the 18th Century for the control of lands in the Brazil-Paraguay areas and in the middle of all that there was the Catholic Church trying to convert the Indians who lived there, trying to save their innocent souls from hell. And there was also the ones who saw in these natives a way to explore their hard work, and many of these natives were killed simply because they refused to be part of this; they had their lifestyle and didn't need to contribute for the so-called progress brought by the white man.
Babenco takes this premise and brings into the 20th Century; so, instead of European nations taking over the land there's corrupt businessmen who want to kill the natives to take their gold and the rubber that's present on the land. Their salvation is on the hands of American missionaries (John Lithgow, Daryl Hannah, Kathy Bates and Aidan Quinn) who are teaching the Catholicism to them; and a former mercenary (Tom Berenger) who is Half-Indian, and he decides to join the natives after being accepted by them as being a god that came out of the sky (after an incident where he jumped from his plane using a parachute).
And do you think those missionaries learned the lesson about letting the Indians preserve their own culture instead of "planting" new concepts on their heads? Of course not!
What makes this epic different from Roland Joffe's classic is not only the period both stories occur but also that in this film we have time to hear what the Indians have to say about the white man, that aspect was left out in 1986 film which caused some controversial to the film. Here, the tribe that was supposed to be destroyed by Berenger's character is completely opposed to relations with the missionaries, believing they bring diseases to their community (and they're right). However, if giving voice to the Indians was a good aspect that diverged from "The Mission" this film couldn't touch its greatness in terms of quality of the performances and the story, that goes overlong, with too much time to present to us how different the cultures are, that sort of thing made for the audience to relate with the missionary couple (Bates and Quinn) and their son (Niilo Kivirinta) trying to get used to the jungle. Joffé's film is a great History lesson; this one is a pure adventure.
There's a sense that the film tries to please its audience so much but it doesn't work all so well with some spectacular sequences, the good music by Zbigniew Preisner and the stellar cast. The latter only having good performances from Tom Waits and the always excellent Nelson Xavier who plays a priest who understands better than anyone what happens in this danger zone. The famous stars from this, well, they act too much and you can't trust them while playing those characters. There's times when you see their faces and you'll go "Oh, it's that guy from that other movie!" They simply don't disappear into the character.
I enjoyed this film because of its story and its message of learn to respect other cultures that aren't evolved like ours. Not to mention that even in its three hours the movie never gets boring, never gets uninteresting and actually goes quite fast.
Problematic, flawed and not much full or rich in its content, "At Play in the Fields of the Lord" even with all these troubles, manages to be a visually beautiful film that deserves some recognition. Watch it more for its entertainment purposes than for its political and artistic contexts. 9/10
Babenco takes this premise and brings into the 20th Century; so, instead of European nations taking over the land there's corrupt businessmen who want to kill the natives to take their gold and the rubber that's present on the land. Their salvation is on the hands of American missionaries (John Lithgow, Daryl Hannah, Kathy Bates and Aidan Quinn) who are teaching the Catholicism to them; and a former mercenary (Tom Berenger) who is Half-Indian, and he decides to join the natives after being accepted by them as being a god that came out of the sky (after an incident where he jumped from his plane using a parachute).
And do you think those missionaries learned the lesson about letting the Indians preserve their own culture instead of "planting" new concepts on their heads? Of course not!
What makes this epic different from Roland Joffe's classic is not only the period both stories occur but also that in this film we have time to hear what the Indians have to say about the white man, that aspect was left out in 1986 film which caused some controversial to the film. Here, the tribe that was supposed to be destroyed by Berenger's character is completely opposed to relations with the missionaries, believing they bring diseases to their community (and they're right). However, if giving voice to the Indians was a good aspect that diverged from "The Mission" this film couldn't touch its greatness in terms of quality of the performances and the story, that goes overlong, with too much time to present to us how different the cultures are, that sort of thing made for the audience to relate with the missionary couple (Bates and Quinn) and their son (Niilo Kivirinta) trying to get used to the jungle. Joffé's film is a great History lesson; this one is a pure adventure.
There's a sense that the film tries to please its audience so much but it doesn't work all so well with some spectacular sequences, the good music by Zbigniew Preisner and the stellar cast. The latter only having good performances from Tom Waits and the always excellent Nelson Xavier who plays a priest who understands better than anyone what happens in this danger zone. The famous stars from this, well, they act too much and you can't trust them while playing those characters. There's times when you see their faces and you'll go "Oh, it's that guy from that other movie!" They simply don't disappear into the character.
I enjoyed this film because of its story and its message of learn to respect other cultures that aren't evolved like ours. Not to mention that even in its three hours the movie never gets boring, never gets uninteresting and actually goes quite fast.
Problematic, flawed and not much full or rich in its content, "At Play in the Fields of the Lord" even with all these troubles, manages to be a visually beautiful film that deserves some recognition. Watch it more for its entertainment purposes than for its political and artistic contexts. 9/10