At Play In The Fields Of The Lord

At Play In The Fields Of The Lord

The novel At Play in the Fields of the Lord by Peter Matthiessen features a vivid image of an Amazonian Indian standing at the center of a clearing in the jungle, with his bow and arrow aimed at an airplane flying between him and the sun. This picture became the logo for its film adaptation; however, there are actually two planes casting shadows on these Indians: one brings drunken bush pilots Wolfie and Moon to be hired by a tin-pot jungle general who wants them to bomb tribespeople, while another flies earnest missionaries from North America who want to preach their religion to them. In this world created by Matthiessen both planes are equally destructive machines.

Even though published about 20 years ago, many issues raised in Matthiessen’s novel remain urgent today. On the other hand, few great modern novels pose more challenges for their screen adaptors than “At Play in the Fields of the Lord.” Most of the action here occurs inside characters’ minds and souls within blond woman missionary Andy whose sleeping sexuality is awakened; within Martin Quarrier who loses faith after his child is taken away by God; within Lewis Moon, American Indian gun-runner whose identity comes back when he sees that Indian below pointing his arrow at plane etc. It’s not what takes place in material world that matters but how identities and beliefs get transformed through experiences described by this book.

Saul Zaentz produced this movie as an independent producer known for selecting “unfilmable” source materials (he has also made “One Flew Over Cuckoo’s Nest” or “The Unbearable Lightness Being”).

Together with Brazilian director Hector Babenco they entered rainforest interior locations for shooting purposes. And it’s those very places which provide atmosphere authenticity locations like real ones where impenetrable thudding jungle stretches along both sides indifferent Amazon river surface.

First plane lands near desperately poor but brightly painted settlement colors hide shabby decay. District commander confiscates useless passports of Lewis Moon (Tom Berenger), and Wolf (Tom Waits), his comrade from various minor Latin American conflicts; then he keeps them prisoners while trying to persuade into bombing local tribe blocking “progress” (by which he means jungles destruction).

In the second plane arrive Martin Quarrier family: Aidan Quinn plays dedicated yet naively idealistic missionary father, Kathy Bates stars as hysterical mother, Niilo Kivirinta takes role Billy their perfect child.

On site they meet two other missionaries John Lithgow portrays Leslie Huben who together with Daryl Hannah’s character Andy have already become legends due to Leslie’s upbeat letters published in missionary magazines worldwide despite never converting any single Indian except for mercenary straggler tempted by money.

In a setting of wet decay and putrefaction, with their headquarters in a noisome hotel where the prostitutes outrank them, the three Quarriers (Quinn, Bates and Kivirinta) prepare to re-staff a station from which the previous missionaries were killed by the Indians. The priest listens to their hymns with an air of resigned patience, observes their preparations without comment and wishes them good luck expecting never to see them again.

Then they go off (in their canoe crammed full of trinkets for bribes) to staff the isolated station. Alongside this long sad sweep of story we have another, wider one: Lewis Moon gets drunk and crazy on local brews and drugs, flies his airplane over the jungle until it runs out of gas, parachutes into its green carpeting beneath him and is hailed by the Indians as an emissary of the gods.

He learns bits of the language; is accepted as a member of the tribe; tries to lead them on a crusade against all missionaries (but that’s only what he tries); undergoes many other adventures; arrives at what seems like peace within himself; falls ill with encephalitis; recovers from it (physically); shoots himself through his left foot while trying to kill his dog; arrives at physical recovery, but not mental recovery (a fact which contradicts appearances); goes mad again in an irretrievable way so that finally he dies.

The Quarries’ boat ride upriver

And on top of this there are several other layers: For instance, Lewis Moon comes back in disguise from death as one more missionary for Quinn’s soul — who knows? Perhaps all these stories except Moon’s are really battles for Quinn’s soul?

Each character has his or her day in Matthiessen’s novel; choices have been made in this film version and they reflect most often those elements which could be most easily filmed. (The most impressive scenes in the movie, I think, are Berenger’s stay with the Indian tribe; and Babenco and Zaentz are patient here allowing us time to get to know some of the tribe members and their ways. The Amazonian Indians play themselves and are subtitled. These are not screenplay Indians.)

In terms of the world of the missionaries: Quinn becomes more important than any other character because he changes more than any other character does; so that his struggle over his child with Bates becomes this movie’s dramatic centerpoint. Lithgow’s and Hannah’s characters tend to recede from view because they provide fewer opportunities for drama although I must say I missed from the novel those insights into slow deep change within Hannah; but how could these have been visualized?

And so on.

“At Play in the Fields of the Lord” doesn’t build to a conventional plot climax it is about beliefs much more than about actions.

What we have here is a long sad sweep of story which shows us many things, one thing after another: its surface gives us a series of tragedies, underneath them lies this quiet sweeping conclusion.

It is a morality play made out like a detective story that is, we’re shown first all these separate events but only at last do we begin to see them as connected in some deeper way: watching it, we’re looking at a morality play whose people don’t start out believing what they believe but later come to believe what they didn’t start out believing. What kind of people? Sincere people who create unwitting mischief so that evil people can get their way.

But maybe that’s only my interpretation? At least this much seems clear: if your god lives in land and trees then if you destroy land you kill god. Yes! These messages were buried in very fabric film itself where shot locations used it not told us but showed us.

Watch At Play In The Fields Of The Lord For Free On Gomovies.